This Week...

February 13- February 17, 2017

Reading:  We started our Forces and Action reading unit!  We began by focusing on our essential question: How and why do objects move?  We also previewed key vocabulary for the unit.  We discussed the importance of knowing content vocabulary as we read various articles and books.  Students accessed their prior knowledge of forces by drawing upon their science experiments.  This information sparked new wonders and questions.  After reading a nonfiction book about forces, students recorded their new learning on sticky notes. Reading Logs are due Tuesday, February 21.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We began unit 7!  Students discovered that square products are formed by multiplying two identical factors.  They also learned that 2 even factors produce an even product, while 2 odd factors produce an odd product.  Students worked together to increase their speed of recalling the basic facts.  This automaticity will help students solve more complex multiplication and division problems later in the unit. **If applicable: for students still on addition and subtraction, fact tests and graphs are due Tuesday, February 21.

Science:  Students worked together to find creative ways to make a toy car move.  They created questions and tested out their ideas with various materials.  While experimenting, students discovered that a force is a push or a pull.  A force must act on an object in order for it to move.  The students’ experiments focused on the four force descriptors: what the force is, what the force is acting on, the direction of the force, and the strength of the force.

Writing:  Students wrote their rough drafts by combining their leads, moments, and revisions.  The worked on replacing weak verbs and adding dialogue from the text.  At the end of the week, they used a checklist to ensure they had the key elements of the response to literature essay.  In grammar, we focused on helping verbs.

Spelling:  We had our week 21 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.  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 21st!