Week of May 30, 2016

Students in bright and colorful attire for our Disco Dress Day.

Highlights from Last Week:
Students shared their posters and presentations about Food Webs and Ecosystems. With new-found flair, students made presentations on Google Slides with vivid images and short captions, using note cards to explain information rather than cram slides with walls of text. We learned all about producers, consumers, and decomposers in various ecosystems.
To practice our newly-learned language skills with conjunctions, interjection, and more, we are writing personal narratives. This also helps us review strategies for writing personal narratives, which we studied back in the beginning of the school year.  Students are now writing more complex sentences thanks to conjunctions, and are able to express emotions more clearly thanks to interjections. They also have some pretty entertaining stories to write!
 
In Math, we tested our skills in Polygon Properties. Listing properties of triangles and quadrilaterals was easy for some, still challenging for others. I will give students who want it an opportunity to retake the test. We moved on to measurement conversions. Students loved the “Known to Unknown” method for converting from feet to yards, yards to miles. They were getting correct answers every time –and loving the work, strangely! Hey, I’ll take it!
 
In Reading, we began our informational text groups. Students selected from topics such as Self-Driving Cars, Bees, The Zika Virus, and Climate Change. In their groups, they decided on a news article that all would read and jot notes about. This week, we will meet in groups to analyze and discuss the articles. Students seem pretty excited about this latest version of book groups.
 
Middle-schoolers visited fifth graders on Thursday to share about schedules, lockers, and other important logistics. There is a lot to learn about middle school, but an important take-away is that there are many friendly faces willing to help.
 

What we didn't get to:

• In math, Volume.
• In Writing, yet again, Verb Tenses.

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• No School Monday: Happy Memorial Day.
• Author Visit Tuesday: Elinor Teele, author of “The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin.”
• Global Citizenship Presentations Wednesday and Thursday: Students present to the class about their Global Citizenship projects/

 

Math: 
Measurement Conversions. Volume.

• Measurement Conversions: Metric system and US standard system. We’ll see how this is used in the real world.
• Volume: Review the volume formula and composite figures.
  
  

Writing:  
Grammar and Language Skills. Personal Narrative Review.

• Language Skills in Action: Students use their knowledge of commonly confused words, conjunctions, commas, and interjections as they write a personal narrative.
• Verb Tenses: We learn about the various versions of the past tense.
  
  

Reading:
Reflections. Connect to Grammar.

• Read Aloud: We are reading aloud from Rebecca Stead’s novel, “When You Reach Me.” Students are enthralled by the mystery, the constant use of foreshadowing, and the amazing grammar skills of the author!
• Informational Reading Groups: Students read about an informational topic, then meet in groups to discuss and analyze.

 
Social Studies:
American Revolution.
We pick up the story after the Battle of Bunker Hill and learn about:

• The Declaration of Independence and its meaning
• The Battle of New York and Washington’s Struggling Army
• Trenton and Princeton and American Morale

 
 
Science:
We take a break from Science to pick up again with Social Studies.
 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: Global Citizenship Final Project due Wednesday.
• Reading: 25 minutes of daily independent reading is expected. Students should log it in their Planners. 
• Reading Response Blog: There is a new prompt (#18) for students to respond to by Friday.
• Other: Students may have some classwork that needs to be finished at home.

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