MAY

Language Arts

Students are immersed in reading poetry. Students have come to understand that poems evoke feelings from the reader.  As a result, students have determined the mood of various poems.

               



Additionally, students realize the poem projects a point of view.  Students read poems daily and respond to a specific concept being taught. 





Students will discuss how stanzas are the equivalent of paragraphs.  The word "stanza" means room in Italian. The students will be offered this analogy. Each stanza is like a room in a house. Each stanza has an idea and all the stanzas collectively are related.


                       

Students will discuss the relationship of stanzas to the main idea of the poem. They will learn how a poet connects his ideas when writing poetry.

Writing

Students have completed the opinion writing pieces.  Below are some samples of student work.

                                                    

Space

By Nathan

 

Everyone should go to space. I want to go because I want to be one of the astronauts who will test the new technology that NASA has developed.  I want to explore distance planets too.  I also want to live in a space station, but first I have to learn about it.

First by going into space I will test new technology. Here’s what I’m going to test.  The first spacecraft I’m going to test is one that has an electric engine.  It is going to be used for the smart – 1 mission to the moon.  It slowly increases its speed until it is traveling many times faster than a chemical rocket.  Another spacecraft is one that has huge sails like on a sailboat.  The sails catch the solar winds of the sun and can whisk the spacecraft to other stars and planets. Next I am going to tell you about something that won’t be invented until later in time.  This spacecraft can travel at warp speed.  If you don’t know what that is it is traveling faster than the speed of light. That’s just some of the technology I want to test.

I also want to explore distant planets, like Mars.  Mars is the first planet NASA is going to try to colonize. Before they can colonize Mars, they have to prove that they can get someone on Mars.  First they have to learn about Mars with rovers.  Then they can make the rocket. Since the trip to Mars is six months, the rocket has to be big.  So big that they have to make it in space just like a space station.  It will have either the sails or an electric engine. NASA has found out that 3D printers can make a full meal in minutes so that astronauts will not have to worry about food on such a long trip. That’s how NASA is trying to get a person on Mars.

Since I want to live in a space station I need to learn about them. Here’s my research so far. To keep healthy astronauts have to exercise on special equipment every day for two hours.  For food, they pick out of 100 items.  Then a rocket from earth shows up with their food.  The only catch with the menu is they have to eat 200 calories a day due to weightlessness.  Finally the beds are on the walls! You have to be strapped to your bed because with weightlessness. Otherwise, you would float away. That’s my research so far on living in a space station.

These are some reasons to go into space.  We could test new technology. Then we could explore distant planets and finally find out what it would be like to live in a space station.

                                          

                                                                 Arctic

                                                              By Hailey

Wouldn’t you want to go to the Arctic with me? Global warming is melting the Arctic. The government needs help to stop oil and gas drilling where the polar bears live. My last reason is polar bears may be the first species lost to global warming. 

Global warming is causing the Artic to melt. Polar bears have to swim farther because global warming is melting the ice.  Polar bears are getting weaker because they don’t have the right amount of fat.  The polar bears are drowning because global warming is melting the ice floes.  I can tell people about global warming and that the polar bear’s ice is melting.  This could keep them from dying.

Another reason is to help the government stop oil and gas drilling where the polar bears live.  Polar bears are dying because oil and gas are polluting the seas.  If there was an oil spill it could lead to a lot of animals dying. Polar bears and sea creatures would be hurt by this.  Oil and gas can kill animals, especially the polar bears because it can get on their skin and food and this would kill them.

The last reason to go to the Arctic is that polar bears may be the first species lost to global warming.  This might happen because the Arctic is getting warmer and the polar bears habitat is being ruined.  We need to stop global warming so polar bears can continue to hunt seals, which are also dying out too.  These animals can become extinct. The government needs to make laws to protect the Arctic and stop global warming.

We need to help save the polar bears. The Arctic is melting because of global warming.  We need to save the polar bear’s environment.  Polar bears will die because oil and gas are polluting the seas.

 

Students are using the 2 x 5 array to build larger arrays from this model.  Students will be given a scenario that Muffles' assistant, Patricio, needs to put the 2 x 5 boxes together to make new larger boxes of truffles.   From this model some students can double it and develop the equation (2x5) + (2x5) or 4x5 = (2x2) x 5 = 2 x (2x5) or (2x5) + x5) = 2x 10 = 10 + 10 = 20. 

Students are continuing to conduct experiments on minerals.  They have learned that minerals can be identified by performing the light test.  This test entails understanding the terms, opaque, transparent and translucent.  Students determine which minerals have this property.  Students also discovered the property of luster and minerals can be dull, waxy, glassy or metallic.  Then these young scientists will examine the minerals for crystals.