Week of February 1, 2016

Students performing their African Drumming routine at All School Meeting

Highlights from Last Week:

​5K totally rocked their African Drum performance at All School Meeting. Students thunderously beat their drums in syncopated rhythm. They added some spice –or better yet, ‘sleepiness’– to their performance to get some chuckles from the crowd. Check out the Student Work page for a video of students in action.
 
Students finished their “Word Scales,” which were scales of vocabulary words to describe a trait, from size, temperature, and light to taste, affection, and intelligence. We all enjoyed using dictionaries and thesauruses to find new words, but it was even more enjoyable to check out everyone else’s clever vocabulary word options.
 
I admit to failure –I launched a Social Studies research project with students and it just didn’t take off with student excitement and eagerness the way I had hoped. After reasoning with students, I decided to cancel the project and take a different approach to learning about Colonial America and research. Not every activity can be a winner!

Report cards were issued on Friday. Parent teacher conferences are not scheduled on our school calendar until March, but I imagine some parents would like to meet with me sooner. No problem! If you would like to move your conference up from March into February, just email me and I will find a time before or after school.
 
What we didn't get to:

• Fractions and arrays in math
• Some small pieces of a lesson in each subject

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Early Release on Wednesday

 
  
Math: 
Fraction Basics. Addition and Subtraction of Fractions.

• Fractions and arrays –We’ll use arrays to model fractions of a set.
• Finding Equivalent Fractions –We’ll use our understanding of multiplying and dividing by “1” to make equivalent fractions.
• Improper Fractions and Mixed Numbers –We’ll make models to represent fractions with “hidden wholes” and turn wholes into fractions.
• Addition of Fractions –Using those handy-dandy equivalent fractions, we’ll add fractions with unlike denominators and learn how to reduce them to simplest form.
• Subtracting Fractions –Just like addition, only we’ll take away fractions.

 
Writing:  
Informational Writing.

• On-Demand Writing Research and Prompt –Students will show what they know about informational writing. First I will let them research about a topic, then I will ask them to write an informational text about that topic in 45 minutes.
• Learning about Informational Texts –To guide our own informational writing projects, we will look at other informational texts and their structures and features for inspiration.
• Effective Note-taking –We will practice a couple of different note-taking strategies, all with the goal of having students process information rather than copy it.

 
Reading:
Book Groups. Informational Texts and Determining Importance.

• Book Groups –Groups continue to meet using Reading Reports to prepare for insightful discussions.
• Exploring Informational Texts –We will notice features of informational texts and how they help us as readers. We will compare them to fictional texts.
• What is Important? –To help us comprehend informational texts, we will identify parts of texts and concepts that are important and learn how to build main ideas from those parts.

 
Social Studies:
Colonial America.

• Culture in Colonial America –We’ll read about culture, medicine, law, recreation, and more in Colonial America through a fun book called, “Your Travel Guide to Colonial America”. As we read, we’ll be learning about informational text features and techniques.
• Short Research on Colonial Culture –Students will choose a topic they were interested in from the book, “Your Travel Guide to Colonial America,” and research it further. We will explore how to use online resources and check our sources for credibility.
• Journal Writing –We will take what we learned from our Colonial America reading and write from the perspective of an American Colonist.

 
 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: Students turn in the “Expanding Our Vocabulary” project on Tuesday. There is no new project after that this week.
• 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: I never got last week’s comments up due to the demands of writing report card comments. There is a new blog this week (#11). Students must respond by Friday.
• Other –Students may have some research assignments and writing assignments in conjunction with our informational writing unit.

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