It's been a great week coming back from the break. We are all seemingly refreshed and ready to get back into our routine.
This time of year - from January to Spring Break is what I call the "meat & potatoes" of the year. This is really a great time for us to dig in deep to great learning projects.
BIG news! - We are beginning the Expert Report! Your child has brought home the RED Booklet for you to read through together. Please sign page 2 and remind your child to brainstorm TEN feasible ideas to fill in page 7. (Be sure to return this to school on Monday). This project will be rolled out slowly, as there is a great deal of benefit to learning the research process through these beginning stages called 'pre-search'. Please encourage your child to think broadly about possible topics. It is important that topics are age appropriate so your child is successful in researching with appropriate level materials and can present to other students. Through the course of this week, we will trim our list of ideas down as we check in with each other and available resources. Hopefully, by week's end, every child will know their topic and can then start collecting resources.
I am encouraging kids to keep up with their Book Bingo Forms. It is important to fill them out as the reading is done; waiting until last minute becomes unmanageable. If your child has not turned in a minimum of one form as of yet, please remind and support them to do so as soon as possible.
This week in math, we concluded our unit on multiplication & division II. There was no Weekly Review, as we took time to show our progress on a post-assessment. Next Friday I will send home the Pre & Post for you to see their growth. (There will be another unit later in the year - multiplication & division III). Next, we will begin working on our Fraction unit.
Before the holidays, all book groups were concluded which makes way for our Short Story Study. These stories - many of which were once a part of the Jr. Great Book Series, help students to build their skills of focusing on new vocabulary, story elements, fact recall and making inferences. All skills that build successful and strong readers.
As we point toward the Expert Report, we have changed our focus in writing to Non-Narrative writing. We will be exploring expository, informational, opinion and personal essay. These skills will assist them in building strong essays for their Expert Reports and build a stronger foundation of technical writing skills to take with them into middle school.
We have moved into the study of the South East Region. We will be taking some time to learn about Slavery and the Underground Railroad, which will naturally lead us into our study of the Mid West by February.
But first, with Martin Luther King Day just around the corner, we will take some time to learn about the Civil Rights movement.
Conference sign up will be posted on Monday. It will be a LIVE Google Document. Please be on the look out for the email.
Hope your weekend is wonderful.
Using Multiple Towers in math.
Feelings skits with Buddies
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