Language Arts
National Novel Writing Month is over, and now it's time to get into the nitty gritty of revising their stories. Revising includes deleting unnecessary or confusing parts of the story, adding more detail in other areas, refining vocabulary, and improving dialogue. They will do this through peer conferences, direct lessons from me, and conferences with the teacher's aide and teacher when possible. Finally, after revising their stories they will begin to edit for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
The class is about halfway through their second class novel of the year, The Sign of the Beaver. This is an excellent work of historical fiction which complements our current social studies units. Students are keeping vocabulary lists and doing "quick write" literature responses in their spiral notebooks as we read.
Today we are 25% of the way into the second trimester. Students are encouraged to keep this in mind as they pursue their AR goals.
Math
The students took their Unit 3 test that covered adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers as well as comparing fractions and decimals. Now, we are moving on to Unit 4, which focuses on multiplying and dividing fractions, mixed numbers and decimals. On our class website, I have posted some Khan Academy videos which will help students learn and review these concepts. These videos will also come in handy for homework help. During this unit, not only will the students learn the process of how to multiply and divide fractions and decimals, but they will also develop a deeper understanding of these concepts. They will do this by using concrete, pictorial, and computational models to multiply and divide fractions and decimals. For example, the process of multiplying fractions is easier for most students, but students will see that when they are multiplying fractions that the product actually becomes smaller. This is because they are finding a part of a fraction. We will use picture models in class to demonstrate what we are learning.
Social Studies
Students are continuing their study of the interactions between the colonists and Native Americans. They are learning about how these two groups cooperated as well as the conflicts they faced. We will dive deeper into the settlement at Jamestown and start a project based on some important events of the first permanent English settlement. We will work on this project during the months of December and January. Students will also begin to learn about other English colonies and their founding leaders as well as the hardships they faced while settling in the New World.
Science
The class has finished its first round of experiments with mixtures and solutions with Mrs. O'Leary. They have learned what a saturated solution is. Ask them about how they determined the amount of salt it takes to saturate 50 ml. of water. Their first quiz was sent home this week in their Wednesday Hip Pocket folder.
Next they will begin to mix chemicals to observe chemical reactions. They will learn that when you combine substances and something new is made, that is evidence of a chemical reaction. They will be adding new words to their science vocabulary such as carbon dioxide, reactant, product, and chemical formula
National Novel Writing Month is over, and now it's time to get into the nitty gritty of revising their stories. Revising includes deleting unnecessary or confusing parts of the story, adding more detail in other areas, refining vocabulary, and improving dialogue. They will do this through peer conferences, direct lessons from me, and conferences with the teacher's aide and teacher when possible. Finally, after revising their stories they will begin to edit for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
The class is about halfway through their second class novel of the year, The Sign of the Beaver. This is an excellent work of historical fiction which complements our current social studies units. Students are keeping vocabulary lists and doing "quick write" literature responses in their spiral notebooks as we read.
Today we are 25% of the way into the second trimester. Students are encouraged to keep this in mind as they pursue their AR goals.
Math
The students took their Unit 3 test that covered adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers as well as comparing fractions and decimals. Now, we are moving on to Unit 4, which focuses on multiplying and dividing fractions, mixed numbers and decimals. On our class website, I have posted some Khan Academy videos which will help students learn and review these concepts. These videos will also come in handy for homework help. During this unit, not only will the students learn the process of how to multiply and divide fractions and decimals, but they will also develop a deeper understanding of these concepts. They will do this by using concrete, pictorial, and computational models to multiply and divide fractions and decimals. For example, the process of multiplying fractions is easier for most students, but students will see that when they are multiplying fractions that the product actually becomes smaller. This is because they are finding a part of a fraction. We will use picture models in class to demonstrate what we are learning.
Social Studies
Students are continuing their study of the interactions between the colonists and Native Americans. They are learning about how these two groups cooperated as well as the conflicts they faced. We will dive deeper into the settlement at Jamestown and start a project based on some important events of the first permanent English settlement. We will work on this project during the months of December and January. Students will also begin to learn about other English colonies and their founding leaders as well as the hardships they faced while settling in the New World.
Science
The class has finished its first round of experiments with mixtures and solutions with Mrs. O'Leary. They have learned what a saturated solution is. Ask them about how they determined the amount of salt it takes to saturate 50 ml. of water. Their first quiz was sent home this week in their Wednesday Hip Pocket folder.
Next they will begin to mix chemicals to observe chemical reactions. They will learn that when you combine substances and something new is made, that is evidence of a chemical reaction. They will be adding new words to their science vocabulary such as carbon dioxide, reactant, product, and chemical formula