January Update

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday and some vacation time.   I know it was a much needed break for the students.  Things were very hectic leading up to the vacation and chorus concert, with lots of celebrations and festivities, so it is nice to be settled back into a normal routine.

At this point in the year we will be assessing the students in reading and math to see how much progress they have made since the beginning of the year.  You might hear them speak about taking a test on the computer or reading independently with myself or Mrs. Furtado.  We will then use this information to form new groups for intervention in February.





Reading-The students finally finished their guided reading books of Shiloh, Secret School and Stone Fox.  When we read in groups we focus on practicing fluency, looking back in the text to answer questions and we discuss characters and problems as we read.  We will now be studying the differences between myths, legends, fables and tales.  Students will read a variety of each type of story.  We will further examine theme and point of view and we will be working on comparing and contrasting different stories.

Writing- We have been working on opinion writing since the end of the 1st trimester and will continue to do so until the end of this trimester.  As you may have heard, before the holiday, students wrote about what the best toy was, in their opinion.  They have learned how to write an introduction and clearly state their reasons with elaborating details for each reason.  An opinion essay should be five paragraphs long.  We recently wrote an opinion letter on the issue of the lunch line that is too long and brainstormed, as a class, how it affects our lunch and how we might be able to possibly fix it.  The students are learning that by presenting facts to back up their opinion, they are making a stronger argument.

Math-  It was a long road through multi-digit multiplication and long division, but it seems we have reached the light at the end of the tunnel.  The students have mastered multiplication, although we always need practice recalling our facts quickly.  The test on long- division is tomorrow, and everyone has been working hard to understand the process and how to check their work.  Students should also be able to identify the parts of a division problem, such as the divisor, dividend and quotient.  Our next concept is a really big one: Fractions!  It is a difficult concept, especially when we get into equivalent fractions and mixed numbers.

S.S.- We will be beginning our unit on the South region of the United States.  Students will soon be completing a map of the states and capitals and will be tested on the location and spelling of them.  We will study the landforms and climate of the southern region, the people that settled there and live there now and living and working there in the present day.

 


Science- Recently we have been working on the different ways to measure matter.  Students are able to find the mass of an object by using a balance scale, students are able to find the volume of regular shaped objects by measuring their height, length and width and multiplying all three. Students are able to find the volume of an irregular shaped object by placing it in a graduated cylinder and finding out how much the water level rises.  We will now be focusing more on the properties of matter and how certain kinds of matter are composed.  We will then move into the transfer of heat energy, followed by a short unit on light and force and motion.