Plans Week of June 1, 2015

Note: My apologies for the delayed update in plans for this week. My father is in the hospital for a broken ankle that he stupidly sustained from falling off of his roof while trying to clean gutters in a rainstorm. He's doing well! His slogan for this experience is, "If you're going to be stupid, you better be tough." Hopefully he learned the valuable lesson to be careful and always prioritize "Safety First."


This week's plan is very similar to last week's plan, as we continue our journey through these units of study.

Special:
Friday, June 5th: Spring Carnival from 3-7pm

Reading: 

• We are still wrapping up a couple of guided reading book groups. Students have been reading a book that has survival and resilience as a theme.
• This week we will learn strategies for summarizing and synthesizing what we read.

Writing:

• We continue our unit on Opinion Essays. Students will learn how to be persuasive and more analytical, able to weigh evidence, to follow lines of logic, and draw evidence-based conclusions. 
• We begin writing argument essays about issues that we feel strongly about.

Math: 

•  We continue our fun yet challenging unit on Algebra centered around a frog jumping competition (we won't actually be using frogs).
• Students will learn how to use variables and algebraic expressions to represent objects.
• We will operate on algebraic equivalencies to create new equivalencies and solve for unknown quantities. 

Social Studies:

• We continue our study of the American Revolution by watching PBS's "Liberty". We will learn about important battles and actions of the revolutionary war, such as Bunker Hill, Trenton & Princeton, Saratoga, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. We will also learn about important revolutionary figures, such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and more. 

Thanks for reading! As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or feedback.

---