Plans Week of June 8th, 2015

Tsunami diorama by Olivia.

Highlights from Last Week
Spring Carnival was a blast! Students surprised me with a giant inflatable basketball hoop that could barely fit through the classroom door, as well as cute new friends such as a snake and a stuffed dog. Thanks kiddos!

Students enjoyed a thrilling set of math classes where we combined concepts from algebra, coordinate grids, and multiplication to solve problems related to a Frog Jumping Contest. We also used algebra and double number lines to find out which of three frogs had the furthest jump in relation to single steps. The perseverance in problem solving that students demonstrate is remarkable!

In Writing, students chose a controversial topic to argue in their opinion essay. We have a wide range of topics: gun control, equal pay for women, prevention of animal cruelty, reduction in parent business trips, mandatory electric cars, and marriage equality, just to name a few. Each student developed a strong thesis began researching for evidence related to his or her topic.

In Reading, Ms. Faucon taught lessons to improve students' summarizing and synthesizing skills. She read aloud from some fantastic literature. The class adored the picture book, "An Angel for Soloman Singer," by Cynthia Rylant with it's gorgeous and intriguing illustrations by Peter Catalanotto.

Here is the plan for this week:

Special:
Tuesday, June 9th: Rube Goldberg Project Day --We'll attempt to create a giant class Rube Goldberg Machine inspired by OK Go's music video. The goals are to explore the physics of simple machines, to use engineering design to solve force and motion problems, and to effectively collaborate as a team player.

Friday, June 12th: Step Up Day --The fifth grade visits Bigelow, meets teachers, explores the classrooms, and gets a taste of the middle school schedule. 

Reading: 

• This week I will conduct Reading Assessments to gauge students' progress in their reading skills.
• Students will write a short response about their reading to practice their summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing skills.

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. 
• Students have chosen a topic to argue in an essay. Once students have gathered evidence to support both sides of the issue, they will draft, carefully select and unpack quotes that support their reasons, and compose rebuttals.

Math: 

•  We wrap up our "Frog Jumping Contest" Algebra unit this week.
• We will operate on algebraic equivalencies to create new equivalencies and solve for unknown quantities. 
• If we have time, we will review some of the tricky concepts that we've covered this year, such as decimal operations and fraction operations.

Social Studies:

• This week we wrap up our study of the American Revolution. We have been watching PBS's "Liberty" series, and will learn next about the battle at Yorktown and the end of the war.

Science:
On Tuesday, while the rest of the grades are at Ware's Cove, we create a giant Rube Goldberg Machine composed of simple machines and clever design and engineering.

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