Friday, September 25, 2015

Crazy Hair Day


Crazy Hair Day/1980's Day 






ELA Stations 





A Look at This Week:
Social Studies- Students will take their Chapter 4 Test on Wednesday.
Essential Questions:  
How can one country impact another?
What can we learn from the Columbian Exchange that has impacted other countries today?

Science- We will finish our food pyramids, and the nitrogen cycle.  Then students will create a song either about photosynthesis or the energy pyramid.
Essential Questions: 
How do plants produce food?
How is energy passed through an ecosystem?


ELA
Reading- We will be discussing theme and working on summarizing texts.  Students will also receive their new vocabulary words and will begin reading A Boy Called Slow.
Essential Questions:
How are challenges conquered in literature and informational text?
How do characters, real and fictional, respond to challenges (both positively and negatively)?
How can challenges affect yourself and the world around you?

Word Work-  We will be working with our second list of root-words, prefixes, or suffixes which include:  alter, bi, logy/ology, anti, geo, and script/scrib. Our vocabulary words from A Boy Called Slow include: determination, custom, extended, reputation, triumph, inherited, travois, and coup stick.

Language Arts- Students will take a quiz on commas on Friday.  Students will also continue comparative writing, and writing summaries.

Math-  We will wrap-up our module on multiplication strategies and move on to division.  We will review division with area models and division with remainders.

Important Days:
Saturday- District Dash/Team66 Community Days
Tuesday- Final Magazine Drive Turn-in Day
Thursday- Author Night with Kate Klise
Friday- Fall Movie Night

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

A Peek at this Week

A Look at This Week:
Social Studies- We will read Lesson 4.3 "Life in New Spain" and take notes.  We will continue to find the main idea and supporting details in the text.  
Essential Questions:  
How can one country impact another?
What can we learn from the Columbian Exchange that has impacted other countries today?

Science- We will continue to read lesson 5.2 "How does energy pass through an ecosystem?"  Students will be learning about the food web and energy pyramid.
Essential Questions: 
How do plants produce food?
How is energy passed through an ecosystem?



ELA
Reading- We will be finding synonyms and antonyms, and will be discussing point of view.  Not only will we discuss perspective but also if a story is told in the first person, third person limited, or third person omniscient.  We will also be reading Teammates, which is about how Jackie Robinson faced the challenge of being the first African American baseball player in Major League baseball.
Essential Questions:
How are challenges conquered in literature and informational text?
How do characters, real and fictional, respond to challenges (both positively and negatively)?
How can challenges affect yourself and the world around you?
Word Work-  Not only will we be working with our root words/prefixes from last week (bio, man, phon, pre, aqua, uni), but we will also be looking at our vocabulary words from Teammates:  segregation, prejudice, apathetic, and humiliation.
Language Arts- We will continue to study commas.  This week we are looking at the use of commas in a direct address and tag questions.  We are also focusing on comparative writing.

Math-  We will begin Unit 1, Module 3 "Multiplication Strategies."  We will be finding efficient ways to solving multiplication problems.  We will also continue to go over factors, products, writing numerical expressions, prime and composite numbers, and finding volume.  

Important Days:
Tuesday- Magazine Drive Turn-in Day
Thursday- Early Dismissal at 11:35
Saturday- District Dash/Team66 Community Days



Have a great weekend!

Friday, September 11, 2015

Math Forum Preparations

Preparing for our Math Forum:







Our Math Gallery Walk:






A Look at This Week:
Social Studies- We will read Lesson 4.2 "Different Worlds Collide" and take notes.  We will continue to find the main idea and supporting details in a text.  We will be learning about how the Spanish conquistadors colonized the Americas.
Essential Questions:  
How can one country impact another?
What can we learn from the Columbian Exchange that has impacted other countries today?

Science- We will continue to read lesson 5.1 "How do plants produce food?"  Students will be learning about plant structures and photosynthesis.
Essential Questions: 
How do plants produce food?
How is energy passed through an ecosystem?

ELA
Reading- We will continue to work with similes and metaphors, and will be drawing inferences from the text.  We will begin our first ELA unit on challenges.  We will open this unit using Langston Hughe's poem, "Mother to Son."
Essential Questions:
How are challenges conquered in literature and informational text?
How do characters, real and fictional, respond to challenges (both positively and negatively)?
How can challenges affect yourself and the world around you?
Word Work-  We will be introducing and working with the following prefixes and root words:  aqua, man, pre, bio, phon, and uni.
Language Arts- We will continue to build our writing stamina in our Writer's Notebook, and will be working on comparative writing. 

Math-  We will begin Unit 1, Module 2 "Factors, Multiples, and the Associative Property."  We will continue to go over factors, products, writing numerical expressions, and finding volume.  We will also continue to discover how to find the surface area of an object.

Important Days:
Monday- Magazine Drive Kick-off Assembly



Have a great weekend!

Friday, September 4, 2015

Sewer Maggots

Sewer Maggot Experiment



Well, we made it through our first full week of school!  It has been wonderful getting to know all of my students, and seeing all of the parents again during curriculum night.  We have had a great week, packed with all kinds of activities and experiments.  Be sure to ask your student about the sewer maggot experiment we did today in Science class!


A Look at This Week:
Social Studies- We will read Lesson 4.1 "The Voyages of Columbus" and take notes.  We will be finding the main idea and supporting details in a text.  Our activities will be focusing on the Columbian Exchange and how it shaped our world today.

Science- We will continue to go over the Scientific Method, and what it means to be a scientist.

ELA
Reading- We will be working with similes and metaphors.  We will find them in books, analyze what they mean, and make our own.  We will also be working on our stamina in silent reading.
Word Work-  We will be introducing and working with the following prefixes and root words:  aqua, man, pre, bio, phon, and uni.
Language Arts- We will continue to build our writing stamina in our Writer's Notebook.  

Math-  We will begin Unit 1, Module 2 "Factors, Multiples, and the Associative Property."  We will continue to go over factors, products, and writing numerical expressions.  We will also discover how to find the surface area of an object and will have our first class forum.

Important Days:
Monday-  No School
Wednesday- MAPS Testing (Reading)
Thursday- MAPS Testing (Math)