This Week...

February 12- February 16, 2018

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.  Reading Logs are due Tuesday, February 20.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We continued working on unit 9.  Students practiced drawing the various types of bar models to represent information in number stories.  We focused specifically on multi-step problems.  Students learned to start with the information they know and then build on from that point.

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 utilized a verb continuum, which started with slow moving verbs and ended with quick moving verbs.  Students incorporated these verbs when writing about Maria Isabel.  In grammar, students took their test on past tense verbs.

Word Study:  This week, we focused on homographs!  Students learned that these words are spelled the same, but are pronounced differently and have different meanings.  They chose various homographs, used them in sentences, and illustrated their meanings.

Miscellaneous:  Thank you to everyone who made our Valentine’s Day party possible!  The students really enjoyed the celebration!  A special thank you to Matthew’s mom, Dylan’s mom, and Quin’s mom for volunteering at the party.  In the LMC, students created informational movies using Adobe Spark.  Their movies summarized the key points they learned about their famous Illinoisans.  Students were also excited to start a mini Personalized Learning project about winter Olympic sports!  They used various resources and note-taking strategies to document their learning.  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 20th!