This Week...

February 18- February 21, 2014

Reading:  This week, we focused on a Time for Kids article entitled, “Washington Weed Whackers”.  Students learned about the alien species, spartina, which was destroying the ecosystem of the west coast.  In this article, students practiced the compare/contrast skill.  They also worked on going back to the text to find support for claims.  In our extended response passages, students practiced finding main ideas in the text and connecting them to their own prior knowledge.  Students also worked on identifying “Aha Moments” in the book Something Might Happen.  This signpost helped students make inferences and determine the theme of the story. Reading Logs are due Monday, February 24. (100 minutes)

Math:  We learned about probability, or the likelihood of something occurring.  Students practiced writing probability in fraction form.  Extended responses were also practiced.  Students did a wonderful job sharing various strategies with classmates and explaining their thinking through writing.  Students explored drawing pictures and number models to solve problems.   Xtra Math practice is due Monday, February 24. (3 sessions)  If applicable: for students still on addition and subtraction, fact tests and graphs are due Monday, February 24.

Social Studies:  We were very excited to start our next social studies unit: Illinois!  We started off discussing the land of Illinois, including bordering rivers and states.  State symbols were also discussed.  Students had the opportunity to study the climate of certain cities across the state: Springfield, Rockford, and Cairo.  After graphing the average monthly temperatures for each city, students discovered that the colder cities are in the northern part of the state, while the warmer cities are in southern Illinois.

Writing:  In writing, students developed leads for their response to literature essays.  Students began their leads with a question or exciting detail to grab the reader’s attention.   They also began revising sections of their rough drafts to include showing details and text support.  In grammar, students identified correct helping verbs in the past and present tenses.

Cursive/Spelling:  Today, we had our week 21 test.  In cursive, students wrote the uppercase “W” and “D”.

Miscellaneous:  I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!  The February writing words test will be next Thursday, February 27.  The test will be cumulative, and include October, November, and January words.  A list containing all the words went home today.  An informational letter about the upcoming ISAT tests also went home today.  Please let me know if you have any questions…have a terrific weekend!