The class will begin new units in Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies.
Language Arts Students will begin a study of nonfiction reading. In this unit students will determine the main idea of a text as well as recount key details. Then students will explain how the details support the main idea. Students will read about explorers and connect their learning of explorers in social studies to their knowledge of reading nonfiction materials.
Social Studies Students will identify the reasons why people explore and what qualities are needed to be an explorer. Students will determine how exploration helped the development of the Americas. The Vikings will be the first group of explorers which students will learn about.
Math
Students will begin their study of multiplication by learning multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10. Students will transfer their knowledge of skip counting and doubling to multiplication.After this students will delve into word problems with multiplication.
Monday, February 3, 2014
The first week of February 2014
"Away in a meadow all covered with snow The little old groundhog looks for his shadow The clouds in the sky determine our fate If winter will leave us all early or late." - Don Halley
Language Arts
After reading the following two folktales, The Seven Chinese Brothers and Anansi The Spider, the students used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories. Then students wrote a paragraph comparing the author's message along with examples of how the two stories were alike and different. This week students will read, Anansi Does The Impossible, and then watch the movie, "How Anansi Obtained the Sky God's Stories." Students will discuss the similarities and differences between these two types of media. Then students will determine which they liked better.
Following this, students will read, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears and determine what caused this to happen.
Here is a You Tube video explaining the story:
Mathematics
Students are learning about the attributes of triangles and quadrilaterals in math.
Students created triangles with straws and discussed all triangles have three sides, three vertices and three angles. Students learned the term "vertex." Then they discovered the area inside the triangle where two sides meet is called an angle. Students made triangles of different lengths and learned that one type of triangle is called a right triangle. Then students discussed the attributes of polygons in order to determine the difference between shapes that are and are not triangles.
Students are learning the properties of quadrilaterals and the difference between squares, and rectangles. They first will create these shapes with straws. Then students will discuss the attributes of a quadrilateral, which means the shape has four sides, four angles, and four vertices. The students will notice that squares and rectangles have right angles. Students will compare and contrast the difference in these two shapes.
The great minds of the students in this class are working hard to learn concepts and are delving deep into concepts being presented in class.
