Hello, everyone! This week our class will be busy with Common Core testing. Common Core Standards are the new standards being adopted in Illinois to guide our learning. This testing will happen three times this year. If you'd like more information about these standards please go here: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards
Please see below for what we will be working on during this Halloween week of 10-31-11:
In Word Work, we will begin Word Wisdom Unit 2: Movement. We will focus on using context clues to determine the meanings of words this week. In literature study, we will still be discussing story structure (problem, rising action, climax, and resolution.) We will finish reading The Day the Fifth Grade Disappeared by Terri Fields and students will finish their plot diagrams of the story. Students will also be taking the Common Core multiple choice reading comprehension test and the constructed response reading test this week. Last week in writing workshop, we worked a lot on how to craft a good topic sentence for an expository paragraph. Students will be writing and revising these paragraphs this week.
This week we will finish working on Topic 8 which deals with basic geometric ideas such as measuring and classifying angles, polygons, triangles and quadrilaterals. We will also be doing Common Core testing for math during two of our math periods this week. Our Topic 8 math review and test will not be until next week.
In science this week, students will create their edible animal cells. Their cells must have something to represent the cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, vacuoles, and mitochondria. Students must label the pieces using toothpicks and stickers. They must also draw a labeled picture of their edible cell, telling what the function of each organelle is.
Happy Halloween!
Love, Mrs. Vera
