This Week...

October 31- November 4, 2016

Reading:  We focused on the characteristics of biographies.  Students learned that a biography is written about a real person and includes important events from his/her life.  Many biographies have a chronological text structure.  Students also learned how to read nonfiction reference articles by focusing on text features.  They filled out KWL charts about great white sharks.  The charts included their prior knowledge, questions, and information that they learned. Reading Logs are due Monday, November 7.  (100 minutes)

Math:  Students reviewed major concepts from unit 3, which included: measuring to the nearest ¼ inch, finding the perimeter/area, and measuring the diameter/circumference of a circle.  They also used IXL, an online resource to review key measurement concepts.  Just a reminder, student log-in information and passwords are taped in the front of their assignment notebooks.  Students are encouraged to use this resource at home to practice any additional skills.  Students took their unit 3 test on Thursday.  We will begin unit 4 next week!

Science:  We learned about the phases of the moon and important characteristics about Earth’s closet neighbor!  In the LMC, students worked on their planet research projects.  They used the boxes and bullets organizer to take notes on the essential question: What makes my planet unique?  They have been using their knowledge of nonfiction texts to navigate an online resource: TrueFlix.

Writing:  Students edited their personal narratives with a checklist and met in groups to give peer feedback.  They checked for proper spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.  They also revised their pieces to ensure that strong verbs and showing details were included.  In grammar, students learned irregular plural noun forms, such as “feet” and “geese”.  The November writing words list went home on Thursday.  The November writing words test will be on Tuesday, November 29 and will include the October words.

Spelling:  Students took their week 9 spelling test.

Miscellaneous:  Students had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween at the beginning of the week!  Thank you to Leo’s mom, Blake’s mom, and Maggie’s mom for helping with our party!   Just a reminder, students will not have school on Tuesday due to an Institute Day.  Please let me know if you have any questions…have a great weekend!