Science:
Currently, students are in the midst of our Electricity & Magnetism unit and are enjoying it very much! Students are learning about and creating simple, series, and parallel circuits, discovering the differences between conductors and insulators, and creating switches. During this unit, we have an engineering project that students are anxious to begin. In groups, students will use a cardboard box (a shoe box works perfectly) to plan to “wire a house” and eventually wire their house or structure. The only requirements the students are given are: The house/structure must have a minimum of 4 rooms. Students will be using batteries, battery holders, wires, and bulbs in class but are welcome and encouraged to do the “decorating” of their house or structure at home. Students began the engineering process on Friday and started drawing up plans and possible solutions.
Writing:
The essayists of Room 2 have published their literary essays and shared some great underlying themes found within their texts. Some of these themes discovered by students included claims such as “you can achieve great things if you believe in yourself” and “strangers can have a lasting impact on our lives”.
Last week, we began our poetry unit. Students are enjoying drafting free verse poems while learning strategies to revise poetry. Strategies include word choice/substitution, using punctuation to create suspense, excitement, or pause, and using different variations of line breaks. Students decided upon the theme of “Dreams” for the basis of the class anthology we will create!
Reading:
Fantasy Book Clubs have come to a close and club members have prepared culminating book talks to perform for the class. These book talks are a kind of advertisement for the book, including details such as title, author, plot overview, and characters. Hopefully we can keep the spark of fantasy books going by getting others interested in the books different groups experienced!
We have begun to move onward to our Test Prep unit where the lesson focuses include identifying text genres, paying attention to small details like directions, titles, author names, pictures with captions, and bolded vocabulary, and more. Students practice reading various text types, discussing elements such as author’s craft and purpose, comprehension of information, as well as dissecting questions and using the text and/or our own critical thinking skills to respond.
Math:
Our context unit has come to a close and students have learned all about the array or area model used to show the multiplication of fractions as well as the importance of the word “of” in word problems as it signals multiplication. Our next unit builds upon the skills of multiplying fractions and raises the level to multiplying fractions by whole numbers and fractions by mixed numbers. During this unit, students will also learn how to divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions.
Currently, students are in the midst of our Electricity & Magnetism unit and are enjoying it very much! Students are learning about and creating simple, series, and parallel circuits, discovering the differences between conductors and insulators, and creating switches. During this unit, we have an engineering project that students are anxious to begin. In groups, students will use a cardboard box (a shoe box works perfectly) to plan to “wire a house” and eventually wire their house or structure. The only requirements the students are given are: The house/structure must have a minimum of 4 rooms. Students will be using batteries, battery holders, wires, and bulbs in class but are welcome and encouraged to do the “decorating” of their house or structure at home. Students began the engineering process on Friday and started drawing up plans and possible solutions.
Writing:
The essayists of Room 2 have published their literary essays and shared some great underlying themes found within their texts. Some of these themes discovered by students included claims such as “you can achieve great things if you believe in yourself” and “strangers can have a lasting impact on our lives”.
Last week, we began our poetry unit. Students are enjoying drafting free verse poems while learning strategies to revise poetry. Strategies include word choice/substitution, using punctuation to create suspense, excitement, or pause, and using different variations of line breaks. Students decided upon the theme of “Dreams” for the basis of the class anthology we will create!
Reading:
Fantasy Book Clubs have come to a close and club members have prepared culminating book talks to perform for the class. These book talks are a kind of advertisement for the book, including details such as title, author, plot overview, and characters. Hopefully we can keep the spark of fantasy books going by getting others interested in the books different groups experienced!
We have begun to move onward to our Test Prep unit where the lesson focuses include identifying text genres, paying attention to small details like directions, titles, author names, pictures with captions, and bolded vocabulary, and more. Students practice reading various text types, discussing elements such as author’s craft and purpose, comprehension of information, as well as dissecting questions and using the text and/or our own critical thinking skills to respond.
Math:
Our context unit has come to a close and students have learned all about the array or area model used to show the multiplication of fractions as well as the importance of the word “of” in word problems as it signals multiplication. Our next unit builds upon the skills of multiplying fractions and raises the level to multiplying fractions by whole numbers and fractions by mixed numbers. During this unit, students will also learn how to divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions.