I look forward to a new year filled with discoveries, friendships, persistence and growth. In 2018 we'll start off the year with a final informational piece of writing called "all about ourselves" then we'll travel down the story book road to fairy tales.
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| Get your mind read to read informational text! |
The students have been learning the structure of informational writing. They've learned that informational books have chapters, a table of contents, subtitles, interesting vocabulary, an introduction and a conclusion. Writer's have also learned to develop text features to support their writing such as maps, diagrams, time lines and scientific drawings.
Our next unit will be fairy tales, we will focus on structure, development and the conventions. Students will learn to identify a character's personality and physical traits. Students will then develop their own adaptations based on the classic tales Little Red Riding Hood and Three Billy Goats Gruff!
In reading, we've spent the past five weeks learning how to identify the main idea and details of informational text. Students have learned this through reading about ancient Egypt. We've studied the geography of Egypt, religious beliefs, daily life, mummies and pyramids.
Each child is working on an independent project. The project requires that they do a little research, write an informational paragraph and create a poster or diorama to share their learning with the class. Some of the topics being researched are pyramids, gods and goddesses, tombs, tomb robbers, hieroglyphics, King Tut and boat building. These presentations will be completed by next week.
Ask your child to tell you about designing and building a papyrus boat that would float and hold weight. Mrs. Geike's fifth grade class joined our team to construct the boats. There was much trial and error as students identified problems and worked together to solve them.
Students also participated in "taking a stand" where they were asked to compare and contrast American and Ancient Egyptian fashion and style. They completed a Venn diagram and then we divided the room into two groups, those who thought the two types of fashion were more alike and those who thought they were different. Then students had to defend their opinions based on their evidence.
Our read aloud this month has been the biography; Who Was King Tut? by Roberta Edwards
This week in spelling we reviewed our high frequency words and students are learning the importance of revising their work for spelling and grammar. They are learning to use their high frequency word lists and word wall to check their writing. We'll continue our study of homophones and multi-syllable words.
In math we've completed unit 3 on multiplication strategies and we're working on mastering our multiplication tables, x6 and x9. Later we'll move on to the x4, 7 and 8 tables. We're also practicing how to add and subtract multi-digit numbers in the hundreds and thousands.
Unit 4 covers measurement and geometry. The students will learn the attributes of polygons and how to make more precise measurements to the nearest 1/4 and 1/2 inch.
IXL.com This is an online tool we've been using in class to practice math skills. I will send home a username and password for each student next week, this will become optional homework.
Students are collecting and analyzing data about favorite winter activities.
Thanks so much to the volunteers for being guest readers and sharing winter crafts!
Stay tuned for more volunteer opportunities in February for reading and Valentine's day.
