Math
Aquarium projects and extra credit models came out AMAZING from last week! Thank you for all of your help with setting up times for students to work together and communicate about their projects. The collaboration shows, and I'm so proud of how well the students did. This week in math we are beginning chapter 4. Chapter 4 has a focus on fractions. On Monday, we will be taking our preassessment, and then beginning work on estimating and multiplying fractions by whole numbers and other fractions. This chapter essentially mirrors the previous one, except our computation will be with fractions rather than decimals. Science Students will continue to expand their knowledge of eclipses and tides this week. Comparing and contrasting solar and lunar eclipses, being able to draw each, and knowledge of spring/neap tides are all on the agenda for this week. Please see the math/science links for this lesson's notes. On Thursday students are in for a treat! After our fun field trip in the morning, we will be having a science experiment in the afternoon! This experiment is called "Punking Pumpkins," and we will be observing the chemical reaction that occurs when different substances are mixed together. Mixing baking soda and vinegar (in a cute, carved pumpkin!) causes bubbling and an elevation in temperature, signaling that an exothermic reaction has taken place. Throw in some dish soap, food coloring, glitter, and googly eyes for an even better show! Thank you to everyone who has sent in donations for this experiment. These materials (except for the pumpkins) will be used again later in the year when we do more chemical reaction experiments in class. English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing: We are finishing up our 5 paragraph essay on What You May Not Know About Me with some conclusion writing in the beginning part of the week. Next step will be Revising before we begin editing and typing into Google Classroom. Reading:Students will be reading the excerpt "I Never had It Made" about Jackie Robinson's experience breaking the color barrier. Skills done in the Study Sync book include annotating and finding evidence to support a structured response and identifying author's purpose. By the end of the week I hope to review story structure such as inciting incident, rising action, climax etc. We continue in Massachusetts Book Award reading groups which include fluency and collaborative discussion, and The Lightning Thief. Students will be taking the Unit 4 vocabulary test in journals on Friday. Grammar:We focus on writing and identifying complex sentences. History:Students write about Hammurabi's Code for an assignment on Tuesday. We discuss local history with our cemetery walk on Thursday and by Friday I hope to introduce Mesopotamian mythology for some fun and creative myth writing for next week. Math
This whole week during math class, students will be working in groups on a project! Students will be given imaginary money to spend on creating a class aquarium. Students will need to "purchase" items for the aquarium following the parameters of the project, correctly add up all of their costs, and figure out their change. Aquarium proposals will be written up and model aquariums will be drawn. Students will present their projects to the class. This project is due Friday, with an optional 3D extra credit model due on Monday (done at home, individually). This is a fun way to wrap up our chapter on decimals! Science We are beginning lesson 3 of our Earth, Sun, Moon chapter this week. Lesson 3 focuses on solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and how the Moon and Sun influence our tides on Earth. Students will need to make flashcards and should be able to draw the positions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon during either type of eclipse. During class we will watch several videos and animations on these topics. English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing: We will be finishing our rough drafts for our narratives called What You May Not Know About Me. This week we focus on transition words, and writing good topic sentences. Grammar: Students review complex sentences with dependent and independent clauses, and conjuntions. Reading: We continue with the excerpt from the novel Dragonwings. Students are practicing finding textual evidence to support open response writing. On Thursday, they will receive their first test back, which is already graded and in PowerSchool. Although most students have a good idea how to use evidence from the text to write supported responses, it will be a work in progress for a while. We continue with Massachusetts Reading Book Groups for fluency and collaborative discussion. We continue with The Lightning Thief History We are beginning a study of primary and secondary sources with the assignment of Artists of Mesopotamia. By the end of the week, we will be discussing the Code of Hammurabi and the social classes of Mesopotamia. Math- TEST FRIDAY
This week we will be wrapping up Chapter 3! Tuesday will be spent finishing up dividing decimals by decimals, followed by 2 days of review. Students will play a scoot game and do 2 practice tests to prepare for their test on Friday. Students should be sure they know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with decimals. Students can review using practice tests, online tutors, and links found in the Math and Science links tab of this website. Online extra credit is due next Monday. Science- QUIZ WEDNESDAY Last Thursday students received a study guide to prepare for this Wednesday's quiz on the phases of the moon. This study guide can also be found in Google Classroom, as well as the Math and Science Links tab of this website. Students should know all vocabulary, key facts, and be able to draw and label the phases of the moon from memory. Extra credit will not be offered, as students received the study guide almost a week in advance. The study guide was made using the quiz. English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing: We continue writing a personal narrative called What You May Not Know About Me in class. We're about half way done. Pen pal letters were sent out to Israel last week! Grammar: We focus on identifying more interesting verbs to put into writing. Reading: Students will have a class vocabulary test on Friday from Unit 3 stem words -mem, -sci and -ology We continue Book Groups with Massachusetts Book Award books and our class read aloud, The Lightning Thief. Study Sync does provide a robust reading workout. We completed 2 questions in class which I am grading as a test grade and the extensive work students did on annotation and getting evidence as classwork grade. This week we begin the Dragonwings excerpt with a focus on the skill of denotation and connotation. History: Students will be taking Quiz #2 for Ancient Mesopotamia on Wednesday and must have flashcards ready to turn in at that time. Math- QUIZ TUESDAY
Between the walk-a-thon on Thursday and early release on Friday, this week is going to fly by! We start the week by working on some problem solving skills in math. Students will look for and continue patterns in order to solve word problems on Monday. We will also be reviewing for our chapter 3 quiz, which will be on Tuesday. For the remainder of the week we will begin working on estimating and dividing decimals. Our test for chapter 3 is projected to be next Friday. Science As we continue to work our way through chapter 1, lesson 2, students will need to memorize the phases of the moon. To aid with this, we will be doing a fun project on Tuesday. In partners, students will use Oreo cookies to create the 8 phases of the moon. The cream will represent the visible portion of light that can be seen from Earth. This will definitely be a fun and messy project! English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing: We continue our pen pal letter exchange with 6th grade students from Kiriyat Motzkin, Israel. We have also begun our extended writing project called What You May Not Know About Me, done in class. Reading: Students reviewed constructed responses to reading as we prepare for the official dive into StudySync. We will be dipping our toes into an excerpt from the novel Hatchet and practicing annotating, close reading and constructing a response. We continue in The Lightning Thief and Massachusetts Book Award books. Vocabulary focuses on Latin and Greek roots of -ology, -mem and -sci. Grammar: Students will be reviewing compound sentences with a short assignment on identifying and writing more fluid sentences. We will begin some keyboard exercises as a way to improve how students type for accuracy in mechanics. Practice typing a portion of text helps students become proficient in punctuation, capitalization and paragraphs. History: I was ECSTATIC that 40% of the Cosmic Camels received a 100% on their first quiz about Ancient Mesopotamia. This week we go back to learning social studies skills in exploring facts, opinions and beliefs. Although this will begin in class, further work may be necessary at home. |