This Week...

January 20- January 22, 2016

Reading:  Determining the moral of a story was a main focus this week.  We learned that a moral is a lesson that the author is trying to portray through the story’s main elements.  We read various fables and figured out how the elements help form the moral.  Students did an excellent job making inferences to determine the moral of the story.  In the fable, The Camel Dances, students came up with some of the following themes: follow your heart, don’t give up on your dreams, and believe in yourself.  At the end of the week, students learned the importance of different text connections.  Some of these connections include text-to-self, text-to-self, and text-to-world.  When readers make connections, they can gain a deeper understanding of the text. Reading Logs are due Monday, January 25.  (100 minutes)

Math:  Students practiced drawing and manipulating various angles with straws!  In addition, they categorized various triangles.  They learned the difference between right triangles and equilateral triangles.  Isosceles and scalene triangles were also investigated.  Students learned how to name various polygons and that there are 360 degrees in a full turn.  Yesterday, students took a quiz on the first half of the unit.   **If applicable: for students still on addition and subtraction, fact tests and graphs are due Monday, January 25.

Science:  Students participated in an engaging, hands-on activity about the relative size of bodies in our solar system.  We talked about how scientists use scale models to demonstrate an idea that may be much larger in real life.  If the moon is a grain of sand, the earth would be a mustard seed, and the sun would be a basketball!  We discovered that the moon and sun appear to be similar in size because the sun is 93 million miles from us.  Students also took their sun quiz today.  Next week, we will begin our study of the moon.

Writing:  We discussed the importance of sequencing details in our writing.  If we do not put key events in order, the reader can become confused.  Students also reviewed all chapters in the book and determined important character traits for Maria Isabel.  They provided text support to show why they chose those particular traits.  Next week, we will resume grammar.

Spelling:  We did not have spelling due to the short week.  We will resume regular spelling next week.

Miscellaneous:  I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!  Just a couple of reminders…January 28 will be the January writing words test and book orders are due January 27.  3 “I Wonder” questions are due every Monday.  As always, thank you for your support at home…I truly appreciate it!  Have a wonderful weekend!