This Week...

February 8- February 12, 2016

Reading:  Students continued reading various poems.  Students analyzed the subjects of poems to determine the poets’ inspirations.  We also discussed how the language a poet uses can elicit a certain mood or feeling for the reader.  Students connected to the poems through personal experiences to deepen their understanding.  We also talked about how poetry can contain difficult vocabulary or use words in unusual ways.  We used our background knowledge and context clues to determine the meaning of words. Reading Logs are due Tuesday, February 16.  (100 minutes)

Math: We began unit 7!  Students discovered that square products are formed by multiplying two identical factors.  They also solved multiplication/division puzzle boxes.  Multiplication Bingo was a great game to practice and review important facts. At the end of the week, students created equations using parentheses to solve for various number stories.  **If applicable: for students still on addition and subtraction, fact tests and graphs are due Tuesday, February 16.

Social Studies:  We finished up our solar system unit by having our moon quiz on Tuesday.  Students 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.  At the end of the week, 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 completed their response to literature essays!  They used an editing checklist to make final changes.  Next week, we will share our essays with our classmates.  In grammar, we focused on the past and present tenses for the following verbs: have, be, and do.

Spelling:  We had our week 19 test.

Miscellaneous:  Thank you to everyone who made our Valentine’s Day party possible!  The students really enjoyed the celebration!  The West states and capitals information went home this week.  Students will have about a month to learn this region.  Before spring break, we will have a test over the West (March 15).  Just a reminder, students do not have school on Monday due to President’s Day.  Enjoy the 3-day weekend and I’ll see you back on the 16th!