Week of February 22, 2016

Flame the Band rocking out at Pine Hill.

Welcome back from the break!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable time off. I enjoyed my week in the British Virgin Islands strolling the beaches. What a great way to rejuvenate and return to teaching with renewed energy!
 
Highlights from Last Week:

To kick off the break, the entire school witnessed an amazing performance from Flame the Band. This group of musicians with disabilities really rocked the auditorium and got students singing and dancing along.

Students had a blast beginning their research for their informational writing project. We did a fun group activity to learn about organizing information into categories. 
 
We took a diversion in math to practice making equivalent fractions through a fun Kimball-created game called “Bet on Equivalence.” This will definitely help us as we move to add and subtract fractions.
 
Students enjoyed their historical fiction writing activity. They wrote from the perspective of someone in colonial America and did some research to create a piece of writing –an advertisement, a journal, a letter, a pamphlet, or similar– that brings together what they learned in a realistic way.
 

 
What we didn't get to:
I do this every year –create an ambitious plan for the week before a break. Someday I’ll learn my lesson!

• In Math, we still didn’t make it to fraction addition or subtraction from the previous week.
• In Writing, we still have some work to do on note-taking and research categories.

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Wednesday Early Release

  

Math: 
Fraction Basics. Addition and Subtraction of 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.
• Subtracting Fractions using Borrowing –Students will learn how to borrow from the whole when they don’t have enough fraction to subtract from.

 
Writing:  
Informational Writing Project.

• Categories of Research –Students will learn how to organize their research into categories that describe the topic so they can better search for information and take notes.
• 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.
• Table of Contents –Students will create a table of contents for their informational writing project based on their categories that will serve as the backbone of their project.
• Writing with a Purpose –Students will learn how keep their writing purposeful by asking themselves, “So What?” and making sure to answer that question within each section of their project.

Reading:
Book Groups. Informational Texts and Determining Importance.

• Book Groups –Groups continue to meet using Reading Reports to prepare for insightful discussions.
• Exploring Informational Text Structures –We will analyze the structures of informational texts, such as comparing/contrasting, topic with details, chronological sequence, question with answer, and more.
• 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.
• Read Aloud –The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. A moving short novel about a 12-year old boy in the painful grip of grief and how an audacious girl and a caged tiger help him find release.

 
Social Studies:
Finish Colonial America. Begin American Revolution.

• RAFT Writing –We will finish our Colonial America writing using the RAFT format (Role, Audience, Format, Topic). Students will share them and the class will try to guess the role, format, and topic of each piece.
• Setting the Stage for The American Revolution –We will explore how Colonial Americans began their journey to independence from Great Britain.

 
 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: Global Citizenship Project: Part 1. See the handout for details. Due Wednesday, March 2nd.
• 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 Reading Response Blog #12 due by Friday.

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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