Plans Week of October 27, 2014

Snorkeling diorama by Sage W.

Highlights from Last Week

• Our first All School Meeting was a great success! Our class was particularly superbly behaved. We host the next ASM on November 10.
• The concert, "Journey into Jazz" was amazing. Students we mesmerized by the rhythms, sounds, and story of jazz.

---

• Students got their Unit 2 math assessments back. Many did very well, mastering decimal and place value concepts.
• In writing, we learned that our own personal narratives can be more compelling if we think about the problem or tension we want to stretch out during the planning phase.
• During reading, students met in book groups and engaged in lively discussions about the point of view of the narrator. They made inferences about the text and jotted down their thinking on post-its to share out with their book groups.
• In science, we learned about food chains and food webs. Students began working on interpreting a data chart to create their own food web.

What We Didn't Get To
We finally achieved everything on the plan last week! Yay!


Special
This week we have Fall conferences. To accommodate conference scheduling, we have an early release on both Tuesday and Thursday.


Reading
Here are the reading plan for this week:
We will continue to meet in our book groups and have lively discussions about the text. We will:

• Compare and contrast two or more characters in the stories using specific details from the text.
• Quote accurately from the text when we explain what the text means and also when we draw inferences.
• Describe how a narrator's point of view influences how events in the story are described.
• Determine the meaning of unknown vocabulary and figurative language.

When students are not meeting with me in their book groups, they will be:

•  Reading assigned chapters from their group book and "Power thinking".
• Finding, defining, and using new vocabulary words.
• Reading and responding to assigned texts.

• Reading independently.

Writing
Here are the writing lessons we will work on this week:

• Check in our goals and targeting our areas of weakness.
• Create metaphorical images that evoke emotions and describe actions.
• Use commas correctly and effectively.
• Type our final personal narratives.
  

Math
Here are the math lessons we will work on this week:

• Identify properties of a given polygon and classify polygons based on their properties.
• Play a game to practice classifying polygons.
• Explore the sum of angles in triangles and quadrilaterals through an experiment and through tessellations.
• Explain how to classify polygons by their properties through an open response.
  

Science
 This week in Science, we wrap up our study of pond life and ecosystems.
Students will:

• Share their Ecosystem Extravaganza projects.
• Finish their posters on food webs.
• Review animal adaptations.
• Test their knowledge of ecosystems, food webs, and animal adaptations with Science MCAS questions.

Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or concerns.