This Week...

March 13- March 17, 2017

Reading:  This week, we read and discussed a reference nonfiction book about magnetism.  We discussed how scientists ask questions as they read to deepen their learning.  Students learned the importance of skimming and scanning to locate important information.  They also learned that their questions can be answered explicitly, implicitly, or not at all within the text.  At the end of the week, students practiced writing questions for their own nonfiction books and figuring out if the answers were explicit or implicit. Reading Logs are due Monday, March 20.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We started unit 8 this week!  Fractions will be the main focus.  Students worked on figuring out fractional parts of a number with counters.  They learned that the denominator stands for the number of equal groups and the numerator stands for the number of groups to consider.  **If applicable: for students still on addition and subtraction, fact tests and graphs are due Monday, March 20.

Science:  Students participated in the magnet challenge where they created a question to test using two magnets.  They gathered materials, made predictions, and recorded observations.  They learned that the strength of the repelling or attracting force depends on the distance between the magnets.

Writing:  Students continued working on persuasive writing.   We read an article about whether or not kids should keep all their Halloween candy.  Students chose supporting evidence from the article to support his/her chosen side.  Then, they used details from the text to complete an organizer.  They used this organizer to write a cohesive essay.   In grammar, students learned how to apply correct pronouns to various sentences.

Spelling:  We had our week 25 test.  Next week, we will not have spelling due to spring break starting on Friday.

Miscellaneous:  Today marks the last day of PARCC testing.  Thank you for your continued support over the past couple weeks!  Students took their West states and capitals test on Thursday.  We will learn our last region after spring break: The South!  The March writing words test will be on March 21.  This test will cover all the lists we have learned so far…a cumulative word list was sent home on Tuesday.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions…have a great weekend!