Language Arts
Students will delve into a reading and writing unit in which they will explore the character's feelings and character traits. Students will read various stories as a whole class.
After reading students will brainstorm a list of feeling words.
Following this, students will explore the feelings of the characters in the stories they read and explain what evidence from the story supports the feelings they have chosen. After describing a character's feelings as a whole class, with a small group, and with a partner, students will apply this newly learned information to their guided reading group books. When they read in a small group, they will be expected to discuss and respond to questions related to the character's
feelings.
Furthermore, students will differentiate between character's feelings and a character's traits. Once they understand this, students will formulate a list of character traits. Students will then review the stories read so far and choose a character trait for each character and provide examples from the story to support the character trait they chose.
Writing
The writing performance task for this unit involves students writing a personal narrative about a time they made a choice or decision and how it affected others. In order for students to be prepared for this, the class listens to and reads stories in which the character's have experiences which are relevant to the kind of personal narrative they will be writing. Some stories the students have heard are:
Ira Says Goodbye
Ira Sleeps Over
Too Many Tamales
and The Honest to Goodness Truth.
Following this, students will explore some ideas for their writing topic. The class will brainstorm a list of their ideas in an effort to help inspire each other. Then students will use a graphic organizer of their choice to outline the story they plan to write. From this point, students will discuss the techniques of a strong lead or entertaining beginning. Then students will start the writing process. They will share their writing with each other and discuss ways to add more elaborative detail. They will conference with each other as well as the teacher.
Mathematics
Students are learning to add and subtract three digit numbers. They will use their understanding of place value to help them with their calculations.
When adding and subtracting, one strategy students use is a number line.
Another strategy students will employ is breaking the number apart.
Social Studies
Our class has started the Native American unit in which students will study about the Wampanoag Native Americans. They will learn about their way of living, the foods they ate, the houses they lived in and how they used their environment to survive.
As part of this unit, students visit Wood Memorial Library on a field and have first hand experience on the tools the Native Americans made, the food they ate and the way they lived.
