The Week of 5-29-12

In Word Work, students will finish our final unit in the GUM Book and take the Unit 5 test.


In literature study this week, we will continue reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. Students will get a better idea of the bow and arrow that Karana uses to hunt and protect herself by building their own version of these materials. They will work with groups to act out part of the book. Students will end the week as they always do, discussing a debatable question related to the book during Socratic Seminar.

In writing workshop, we will further explore perspective taking while employing the Mind-up Curriculum.

In math this week, students will multiply mixed numbers, divide whole numbers by fractions and use diagrams to solve problems.

In science this week we will graph the data we collected during our Heating Earth’s Materials experiment. Then, we will learn more about solar technology and the importance of the sun.

The Week of 5-21-12

Look out for progress reports coming home this week!

In Word Work, we will continue working in the GUM book. We will discuss use of commas, semi-colons, quotations, as well as parts of a friendly letter.


In literature study this week, students will continue reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. We will discuss character motivation and pay attention to details while reading. We will do drawing, acting, writing, and discussion activities to support our reading this week.

In writing workshop, we will use the Mind-Up Curriculum to talk about perspective taking. Perspective taking is the ability to see situations from the viewpoint of another person. When we mindfully practice perspective taking, we become more skilled at accurately interpreting the behavior of those around us. Calm perspective taking directs incoming information to the reflective, thinking prefrontal cortex instead of the reflexive, reactive amygdala.

We will begin math this week by reviewing long division and Topic 5. The test will be on Tuesday. Then we will begin Topic 11: Multiplying Fractions and Mixed Numbers. Students will learn how to: multiply fractions by a whole number, give the product of two fractions, and multiply mixed numbers.

In science this week we will review data we collected last week. We will discuss how shadows are made and why they change length and position. Then, we will share and graph the data we collected during our Heating Earth’s Materials experiment last week.

The Week of 5-14-12

In Word Work, students will start on the final unit in the GUM book: Mechanics. We will work on writing sentences correctly, proper nouns and adjectives, initials and abbreviations, titles, and apostrophes this week.

In literature study, we will begin reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. Students will be thinking about what it would be like to be stranded on a deserted island. They will draw and build a model of the island after reading about it. In addition, they will try and understand the narrator’s point of view.

In writing workshop, students will read some of their own poems from their poetry booklets. Then, we will work on developing more mindful behavior by examining different ways of being more mindful tasters and eaters.

Students will start the week in math by dividing by multiples of 10. Then, we will work with division problems that have 1-digit quotients. Next, students will solve problems involving division of numbers with 4 or 5 digits by 2 digits divisors with an estimate, or by using a calculator when the exact answer is needed. Students will also determine which information is missing and identify extraneous information in problems. The Topic 5 test will be next week.

Students will start the week in science by tracking shadow to determine which time of day produces the longest and shortest shadows and why. Then, students will investigate how different earth materials are heated by solar energy.

The Week of 5-7-12

Thank you to the parents and relatives that came out last Friday to support our Science Fair.  The students enjoyed sharing their projects with you!  Here's what we are doing this week:
In Word Work, students will continue Word Wisdom Unit 5: Measurement. We will work the final part of Unit 5 (Part 4) to review the 30 words we’ve learned and their meanings. In literature study we will finish reading the poetry novel Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech and work on writing our own poetry. In writing workshop, students will receive the rubric for their poetry booklet. Students will write 6 different poems based on different criteria we have discussed in class.

This week, students will continue to divide numbers by a 1-digit divisor. They will see whole number quotients, quotients with remainders, and quotients with a zero in them. Students will transition into relating multiplication with using appropriate operations to perform calculations on whole numbers, fractions, and decimals according to the context and nature of the computation.

In science, students will create an experiment to investigate the difference in air temperature in the sun and in the shade.