Week of January 25, 2016

Students sharing their Human Rights Projects in groups.

Highlights from Last Week:

​We stayed busy in our short week. Students shared their human rights projects in circulating small groups. It was a fun way to see a variety of projects close up, as well as get repeated practice presenting.
 
I introduced a fun vocabulary activity called a “Word Scale,” for which students choose two words that mean the opposite, place them on separate ends of a line, and use dictionaries and thesauruses to fill in vocabulary along the line. Students are creating scales describing gradients between hot and cold, light and dark, good and bad, smart and dumb, slow and fast, and much more.
 
Also in the world of vocabulary development, we played a thrilling class game competing to identify the meanings of vocabulary with Latin and Greek roots. Students worked cooperatively in teams to identify the part of speech, prefixes and suffixes, and meanings of words like “unorthodox,” “intangible,” “innumerable,” and “deflect.”

 
 
What we didn't get to:
We were a little more productive this week, but still didn’t get to everything:

• Writing –we didn’t get to write about theme again this past week, though we did finish the discussion that will lead to the writing.

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Early Release on Wednesday
• Report Cards Issued on Friday

 

Math: 
Review for an assessment.  Begin Fractions.

• Review decimal division and numerical expressions. See Study Guide.
• Assessment –Correct the assessment as a class the next day.
• Parts of Wholes Investigation –We’ll explore parts of wholes in a fun activity using the number of letters in our names compared to our classmates.
• Relate fractions to decimals –We will explore the relationship between fractions and decimals. We’ll represent division as fractions and divide numerators by denominators.
• Fractions and arrays –We’ll use arrays to model fractions of a set.

 
Writing:  
We continue our targeted Spelling and Vocabulary activities.

• Spelling Groups –For students that need work with basic spelling rules, such as the doubling rule, we’ll be working in small groups to practice.
• Advanced Spelling Rules –As a class, we will learn some common yet advanced spelling rules and apply them in our writing.
• Latin & Greek Root Word Hunt –We finish our exploration of Latin and Greek root words.
• Vocabulary Activities –We will use scales, word wheels, and other strategies to play with and practice new vocabulary.
• Writing About Theme –In connection to Reading, students will write about theme using a fun format called a RAFT, which gives students a role to take on, and audience to write to, a format to write within, and a topic to write about.

 
Reading:
We continue with Book Groups and Determining Theme.

• Book Groups –Groups continue to meet using Reading Reports to prepare for insightful discussions.
• Determining the Theme –We will continue our practice of how to determine the theme of a text. We will explain the theme by describing how characters respond to challenges. I will read aloud short stories with various themes.
• Reading Response Journals –Students will write a response on a topic of their choice about their independent reading.
• Finding Main Ideas in Informational Text –As part of our exploration of early American Colonization, we will read informational texts and primary sources. I will teach students how to determine the main ideas of informational texts.

 
Social Studies:
Colonial America 

• Colonial Region Research Project –Working in groups, students will embark on a research project about a group of colonies, choosing from the Northern, Middle, or Southern colonies. We will learn how to delegate responsibilities among group members.
• Taking Notes and Determining Importance –To help students with their research, I will teach them some effective note-taking techniques. Within that, I will help students learn how to evaluate what is important information in their research and how to differentiate between essential understandings versus fun facts and trivial information.

Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: There is a new homework project this week called “Expanding Our Vocabulary.” It is due Tuesday, February 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: Students must reply to my comment to them (once I get it up there) on Blog #10 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.