Week of April 25, 2016

Students getting ready to mail their business letters to their chosen charities.

I hope everyone had a wonderful April break! Welcome back!

Highlights from Last Week:
We had a fun week before the break. Some highlights include:

• Mailing out our business letters to our chosen charities.
• Finishing up our math unit on fraction multiplication and division, then playing a fun game to learn about coordinate grids.
• Enjoying our book group discussions about the end of our books.
• Learning about Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride through poetry.

 
What we didn't get to:

• One book group still needs to finish, and we didn’t get to create presentations about our books’ themes.

This Week's Plan
 
Special:
Our week is pack with extra activities:

• Special Presentation from The Paul Revere House Association, Tuesday at 10:00am
• Global Citizenship Project grade-wide presentation about the end-of-year expo, Wednesday at 1:30pm
• Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary Wilderness Walk, Thursday at 1:00pm
• Get Up and Move Day, Friday during All School Meeting (dress appropriately for a jog around the school yard!)

 

Math: 
Cram Time for Math MCAS.
In order to cover everything that students will be tested on in the MCAS, which is May 10th and 11th, we need to cram in 1 ½ months worth of material in 2 weeks. Here is what we need to cover:

• Coordinate Grids and Ordered Pairs
• Volume
• Measurement Conversions
• Polygon Properties
  
  

Writing:  
Grammar and Language Skills

• Spelling Words and a Spelling Test
• Conjunctions, Prepositions, and Interjections
• Verb Tenses
  
  

Reading:
Finish discussing Theme in Book Groups. Begin Foreshadowing.

• Theme –We’ll discuss the themes of our group books. We’ll also look at other texts that have similar themes and compare and contrast.
• Foreshadowing: We’ll discuss what foreshadowing is and read texts that feature this technique.

 
Social Studies:
We take a break from Social Studies to focus on Science. We will pick up with Social Studies again after the Science MCAS is over in mid May.
 
 
Science:
Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems

• Plants and Their Food –We will learn about what plants need to grow by conducting a fun experiment.
• Food Webs –We will learn how organisms are related to one another by what they eat in their ecosystems. We’ll learn about producers, primary and secondary consumers, decomposers, and more.

 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: There will be a new homework project assigned this week, but not until Wednesday or Thursday. I will post it then!
• Math: There will be a page or two of math practice each night.
• Reading: 25 minutes of daily independent reading is expected. Students should log it in their Planners. 
• Reading Response Blog: There is a new blog (#16) about foreshadowing for students to respond to.

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

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