Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on April 11, 2016
What a blast! Literacy Night was an engaging, noisy, joyful celebration. Kudos to our class authors who read their work to an audience. And thank you to volunteers who made the night a success!
This week we revisit Author’s Message with the purpose of developing critical thinking skills at a deeper level. We will learn common Themes from children’s literature (lessons like Believe in yourself; Always tell the truth; etc.) and apply them using fiction texts. Then we will learn to read closely and find evidence from the text to support our claims, and compare themes within and among texts. When your child uses a piece of fiction for reading homework, ask him/her to think about the themes that emerge over several pages or chapters of a book. And Scholastic has some great ideas on finding themes in books, movies, and songs at home:http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2011/02/helping-students-grasp-themes-in-literature
What great progress the kids have made with narrative writing since the beginning! Their pieces show great evidence of stretching out the moments with details, and many are developing a true author’s voice that makes their writing unique. Check these out from 1. Rose: With great difficulty I grabbed my dangling kite. I t was very hard to do but I achieved my task. 2. Hassan: Finally, I put a break on my feet and quickly turned. I was relieved that I didn’t bump into the hay! We’re also making strides at wrapping up our stories with extended endings that are much more satisfying than just saying “The End”! 1. Carley: I’ll never forget the time the whole class went out on the soccer field. Next time, I hope my kite won’t get tangled with someone else’s kite. I was so disappointed when the bell rang! 2. Courtney: I will never forget the time we were out on the soccer field flying kites. At that moment I decided: I could fly a kite at home! 3. Anna: I’ll never forget the time all the kites were in the sky. It was so much fun running with my kite. I hope I can go kite flying again! Super!
In math this week, students will further their understanding of measurement by learning to develop a sense of how big inches are and applying that knowledge through estimating and actual measuring. Consider the picture above from the student eBook: notice how it pushes kids to understand how big inches are; how many inches long common objects are; and to apply those ideas by comparing lengths. The last big idea is to solve real word problems involving length, height, and distance. Having collected data on the same by measuring objects in feet, students will create and solve each other’s problems this week! At this time of year, kids should be able to model such problems through bar models and parts-and-total frames. You will see practice on these in this week’s homework. As always, let me know if I can clarify if needed!
Having learned a great many map skills this year (orientation, scale, symbols, map keys, natural and cultural features, and more), students are learning geography related to the 7 continents by evaluating a variety of maps and creating an atlas that employs skills learned. In addition, while researching the continent of Asia this week, we will learn about Japan’s tradition of celebrating spring with cherry blossom festivals!
In science, students will engage in hands-on activities to learn about properties of liquids. Using a variety of materials in bottles, they will look, listen, spin, roll, tip, and otherwise manipulate these systems to discover the similarities and differences in the viscosity, amount of bubbles and foam, color, and transparency of common liquids around us. They will also explore water in different containers to learn about prominent features of liquids: their levels remain parallel to the earth, and their molecular structure causes them to take the shape of the container they are in. Here are some pictures of us in action investigating the properties of solids last week, along with us leading the school in song at Friday’s school meeting!
