Week of January 23, 2017

Students teaching each other about an extreme weather topic.

Highlights from Last Week:

Book Groups: We launched book groups this past week. Students will be reading chosen novels and meeting in groups to practice literary analysis. Students are already eager to have their next meeting.

Spelling and Vocabulary: Students took a spelling assessment, and I've been meeting with small groups throughout the week to reveal a number of spelling rules and patterns. Students who have already mastered common spelling patterns worked on finding new vocabulary words using prefixes and a dictionary.

Math Wrap-Ups: In math I had to sneak in a mid-term math assessment that I forgot to give students last week. It was to assess their understanding of the some of the concepts we've covered so far. We'll be having our decimal assessment this week.

Inauguration: We watched a History Channel video about the history of inaugurations and then watched the moment the new president got sworn into office. Students discussed their views about President Trump in partnerships very respectfully.

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What We Didn't Get To:​

• Drama. We'll save it for later in the school year.
• Decimal assessment. Had to sneak in a grade-wide assessment.
• Climate. We snuck in some 

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: ​​​

• Student Council Elections: Elections will be held on Tuesday, January 27th.
  
• Early Release Wednesday.
• "Raising Resilient Children" Speaker Robert Brooks in the Lindquist Commons on Thursday, January 26, at 6:30pm.

Special Activities:

• Student Council Candidate Campaigns: Students can campaign on Monday and Tuesday, January 26th and 27th. 

Math:
Decimal Multiplication & Division Assessment. Begin Fraction Basics.

• Assess and Correct --Students take the decimal multiplication and division assessment, then correct their tests. Here is the Study Guide.
• Fractions as Division --We'll look at how fractions are related to division with a fun exploration involving cakes (not actual ones, though!)
• Fractions of Sets --We'll learn how to find a fraction of a number using models, as well as division and multiplication.

Reading:
Book Groups. Begin Informational Text Reading.

• Book Groups --Students continue their book group work on summarizing, questioning, critically thinking, and discussing.
• What is Informational Text? --We'll identify the features of informational text and compare it to literature.
• Structure Informational Text --We'll look at a variety of ways to structure informational texts, such as topic/detail, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and sequence/narrative.

Writing:
Continue Spelling and Vocabulary.

• Common Spelling Patterns --Students who need support with spelling will work in small groups to practice particular spelling patterns.
• Vocabulary --We'll look at common Greek and Latin root words and explore how many English words draw meaning from their roots.

Social Studies:
We're focusing on Science, but we'll be introducing Colonial America through Informational Reading.

Science:
Weather and Climate. ​

• Climate --Students will begin an exploration of the causes of climate and compare and contrast different climates around the US and the world.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. There is a new homework project called "Global Citizenship Part 1." There is a normal due date (Feb 1) and an extended due date (Feb 8).
2. There is no new Reading Response Blog this week.
3. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
4. There will be a math page for homework each night.

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