Week of October 10th, 2016

Caroline's drawing of Hobbes versus Locke in their ideas of a social contract.

Highlights from Last Week:
Students took their first Math Assessment of the year. I had students correct their own test so they could get immediate feedback on their work, and then I gave them a final percentage. Most students did very well, and the class average was a 90.6%. I'd say students are ready to move on to the next unit!

In Social Studies, we had an invigorating discussion about the nature of government, comparing and contrasting the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Students drew pictures of what a "state of nature" looks like (mayhem) and what a "social contract" looks like (order and civility). We also began a study of the role of government, and students got very excited about the prospect of creating their own country.

In Writing, we began our unit on Personal Narrative writing. Students learned some techniques for brainstorming ideas and planning a story. I'm excited to learn more about students through their storytelling of personal experiences.

The class enjoyed our reading of "Slower Than the Rest" by Cynthia Rylant. Students did a nice job responding on the blog and looking for the bigger meaning of the story.

What We Didn't Get To:

• Since I added a lesson on creating a Timeline to our work in Writing, we still have to learn about point of view. We crawling along with our class newsletter, but it hasn't been forgotten.

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: 

• No School, Columbus Day --Monday, October 10th.
• No School, Yom Kippur --Wednesday, October 12th.
• Parent Teacher Conferences --Weeks of October 17th & 24th

Special Activities:

• DARE Class --Students learn decision-making skills and how to resist unwanted pressure with Office Smith for 10 weeks of 40-minute lessons on Wednesday mornings.
• Listening Levels --As part of a teacher exploration into how to encourage students to listen more actively, 5K will help create a video on "The Levels of Listening." We'll model what it looks like to just "be present," what it looks like to just "listen," and what it looks like to be an "engaged, active participant."

Math:
Place Value, Estimation, Multiplication, and Division.

• Place Value and Powers of 10 –We look at how our place value system works by multiplying and dividing by 10 and comparing the size of place values to one another.
• Estimating Products --We'll combine our rounding skills with our extended multiplication facts knowledge to estimate answers to multiplication problems.
• Partial Products Multiplication --We'll apply our extended multiplication facts to multi-digit multiplication. The "partial products method" is simply a way of breaking down numbers into their place values when multiplying. It helps students with number sense, estimation, and division.

Reading:
Reading Workshop.​

• In-Class Reading Response -- Students will read a short excerpt from Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass and write a short response about it.
• Formal reading assessments -- I continue administering the Fountas & Pinnell reading assessment this week, meeting with individual students to assess their fluency, comprehension, and more. This assessment takes a couple of weeks to finish with the whole class.
• Teacher Read Aloud --We're reading There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar. An entertaining story about a boy who hates school, hates his peers, and hates himself, but turns his life around with the help of a committed school counselor and personal resolve.

Writing:
Launch Personal Narrative Writing.

• Staying in a Point of View --When writing a personal narrative, students will need to tell the story from their perspective and avoid zooming out to an omniscient point of view. We'll learn how to maintain a consistent point of view.
• Using and Punctuating Dialogue --Students will learn how to incorporate dialogue into their stories in order to elaborate and develop characters.
• The Kimball Class Newsletter --We'll put a little more work into launching this outlet for students to publish their writing for an authentic audience.

Social Studies:
Note: In Social Studies, students will read and discuss historical content, but I also intertwine instruction on informational reading techniques. Here is the content we focus on:
Inquiry Investigation of the US Government & Elections, particularly:

• The Role of Government --We ask, what does government do? We'll look at what it means to be a sovereign state. Students will create their own imaginary sovereign state.
• Forms of Government --We compare and contrast different forms of government, such as monarchy, democracy, dictatorship, etc.

Here are the Informational Reading Strategies we will focus on:

• Navigating the Features of Informational Text --Students will learn how to navigate an informational text filled with a variety of resources, such as timelines, quotes, dates, pictures, headings, and more.
• Determining What's Important --We learn some techniques for identifying main ideas, such as skimming and asking questions.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details. 

1. Students continue to work on their "What If...?"  Homework Project, which is due Monday, October 17th.
2. There is a new blog post (#2) on the Reading Response Blog for students to reply to at home by Friday.
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.

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