Plans for Week of January 6-10, 2014

After a 16 day break, it's time to get back to work. But don't worry, we'll ease into everything slowly.

Here's my general plan for the week:

Reading: Informational Reading. We will continue reading about European explorers in A History of Us by Joy Hakim. We'll learn how to quote from a text accurately when explaining it's meaning, how to draw inferences, and how to summarize informational text.

Writing: Informational Writing. We will launch this unit with procedural writing (step-by-step instructions). We'll link steps with transitional words, phrases, and clauses. We'll focus on using precise vocabulary and descriptions. We'll also incorporate diagrams and drawings in our instructions.

Next we'll begin learning how to compare and contrast characters, real people, and historical figures. We'll use Venn diagrams to get us started. We'll focus on analyzing character traits, using specific examples, and transitional words and phrases.

Math: Adding and Subtracting Decimals. We begin this unit by learning about the decimal place values by modeling them, writing them in words, and comparing them. We'll learn how decimals fit into the place value system. Then we'll learn how to add them and subtract them.

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