The Last Stretch

Language Arts                                                   

Students will start a new unit in language arts.  This unit entails reading and writing poetry.


                                                     

In the beginning of the unit, students will come to understand the difference between poetry and other types of writing by identifying its visual features.  They will identify the characteristics associated with poetry. Students will read poetry first before they undertake writing it.

                 

Poetry is shorter than narrative and expository writing. The punctuation is different as well as the structure of poetry.  Students will come to know what a line and a stanza is. Then they will pursue the visual imagery evoked from reading a poem.

Where Do I Find Poetry?
by Georgia Heard

I open my eyes and what do I see?
Poetry spinning all around me!

In small ants trailing over the ground,
bulldozing dry earth into cave and mound.

In a hundred grains of ocean sand,
that I cradle in the palm of my hand.

In a lullaby of April rain,
trapping softly on my windowpane.

In trees dancing on a windy day,
when sky is wrinkled and elephant gray.

Poetry, Poetry! Can be found
In, Out, and all around.

But take a look inside your heart,
that's where a poem truly likes to start.

Science



Students are continuing their study of rocks and minerals.  Our budding scientists will perform the water tests on a sample of 12 different minerals.  After droplet of water is placed on the mineral, students will determine if there were any that had an odor.  They will discover that sulfur has a rotten egg smell. Then students will continue with the scratch test and the hardness test.

                          

Math

Students will start a new unit in math called Muffles' Truffles.   This unit continues the concepts of multiplication and division using an open array.  

                 

                                       

The big idea of this learning involves unitizing, the distributive property of multiplication, and the commutative property of multiplication. Students will learn about the place value patterns that occur when multiplying and the associative property of multiplication. 

                      

Students will advance their strategies by using repeated addition, skip counting, partial products, ten times and doubling and halving.


                                     








Next week's blog will display student's published opinion writing pieces.


            

April 14

Earth Day Parade




Language Arts

Students are wrapping up the explorers unit by writing their opinion pieces about the locations they read about in their reading groups.  The students who read about the rain forest learned that the rain forest is being cut down and this is impacting global warming.  Additionally, they discovered the rain forest offers the world an abundance of resources. 

              


 The students, who delved into studying about the Arctic, found out the Arctic is melting due to the greenhouse effect and this is endangering the polar bear as well as other Arctic animals. 

            



 The children reading about the age of the dinosaurs would like to know how the dinosaurs became extinct by proving one of the theories scientists have proposed.

            


Lastly, the space reading group wants to explore space in the event earth is no longer a feasible place to live.


            

Science

Students have started their study of rocks and minerals.  Students have learned about the three types of rocks,igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic and how they are formed.  Then students also were given a sample of rocks and observed which rocks can be classified as igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.  
           


         


Students will next undertake learning about minerals.  Students will participate in experiments to determine the various properties of minerals.

            

Math

Students are learning to add fractions equal to l.  They have accomplished this through the use of pattern blocks.  This concrete concept is taught so students visualize that a hexagon represents 1.  The trapezoid is equivalent to l/2; rhombus is l/3 and a triangle is l/6.  Once students see the relationship between these blocks as they relate to the whole, they understand which fractional parts to add to make a whole.  Then they transfer this concrete visual to an equation.  From this point, they can also discover equivalents for 1/6, l/2, l/3, etc.


         

Active Minds stimulate students to expand their learning.