March is here!

Language Arts

Students are continuing this nonfiction unit with exploring point of view.  Students will read stories and identify the author's point of view.  Then they will discern their point of view.  Students will support their point of view with evidence from the story.

                           

Students will read The Great Kapok Tree and decide on the main character's point of view and then other character's perspectives in the story.  Finally students will be asked their opinion.

                                          


                                     
                                       

Social Studies

Students are studying the exploration of Christopher Columbus.  They have read various excerpts from books and articles to gather facts about this explorer.  Students are also noticing that different texts contain conflicting information and/or more information than other texts.

                             

Students will write a journal entry as if they were Christopher Columbus.  Then students will read the book, Encounter, and identify the point of view of the Taino Native Americans.  Students will discuss their perspective with regard to the information they have read.


                            

Mathematics

Students have started a new unit in math entitled Muffles Truffles.  In this unit students will work on multiplication and division with arrays.  They will stretch beyond the basic facts to larger numbers. Students will work with partners as they enter the world of Muffles Truffles and his delicious truffles by arranging boxes in various mathematical configurations.

                                                          



                                   


                                        

Week of February 22

 

                                             

 

Language Arts

Students will start a new unit in Language Arts.  In this unit students will be reading nonfiction texts. As they read students will determine the main idea and recount key details which support the main idea. In addition, students will identify their own point of view of a text and distinguish it from the author's point of view.  Students will compare and contrast the most important points and details in a story. Students will write an opinion piece identifying a place they wish to explore and provide three reasons to support their opinion.

 

This unit will be integrated with the social studies unit on explorers. Students will be reading books about Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Jacques Cartier.

 

            

 

Below are examples of students writing pieces from the last unit.  Students had to write stories about lessons they learned.

 

Listen to Directions

By Nick

 

 

                                                    

 

I was so happy that I could finally ride a dirt bike. I asked, “Dad, could you teach me how to ride a dirt bike?” “Now,” he said, “We could do it after lunch.” When it was time my dad got the dirt bike out of his truck and rode it into the backyard.  I opened the fence for him. When he stopped the bike he showed me where the throttle and the brake were. I pretended I knew how to ride one but I didn’t. When he stopped with the directions, he said, “Take it slow at first.” I didn’t listen and accidently went full throttle. I drove it really fast. I leaned back by accident and did a wheelie.  I didn’t know if I was going to fall off or not. I was pretty much frozen. I was so scared. When I finally crashed into the fence I opened the gate from the impact of the crash and left a tire mark on the fence. It really damaged the bike. I hit the side of my hip. It felt like I broke a bone at first, but I didn’t. I went inside and got an ice pack. When my dad went outside to see if the dirt bike would still work, it didn’t run. He worked on it for a while. I could tall that he was really working hard. I was a little bit angry at myself for not paying attention. When my dad got the dirt bike running again I apologized for not listening to directions. I told my dad that I wanted to try riding a dirt bike again. Next time, I won’t crash and I will listen to directions so I don’t crash. My lesson learned was to listen to directions on how to do something when given them because if you don’t it can sometimes hurt if you don’t.

 

 

Listen to Your Parents

By Max

                                                 

“When are we going to D.C?” I said. “April 17,” my dad said. I wanted to go so I checked my calendar.  It was one more day. My dad woke me at 5 a.m.  We put our suitcases in the car and drove to the airport. I couldn’t wait to go on the airplane. After we got to Washington, D.C. my family and I went to a hockey game, The Capitals and the Rangers.  When we got to the arena, it was noisy.  All the people were talking about the game. I smelled popcorn. I asked my dad, “Can we get popcorn”? He said, “Ok.”  It was my first national hockey game.  As we walked around I could feel the cold air. Our seats were in row 207. It was close to the ice. Our seats were in the corner of the arena at an angle. As we sat down the game began. At the end of the first intermission it was 0-0. My dad and I got pretzels and soda at the stand. “I’m going to the bathroom,” I told my dad. My dad said, “Wait for me.” But I went by myself. When I came out of the bathroom, my dad wasn’t at the place where we bought the food. I was scared.  I wanted to cry.  I was fighting back tears. I decided to go find an adult. There was a man standing outside of the bathroom. I told him I was lost.  After that he took me to get the manager. I said, “I am lost.” The manager said, “What row are you in?” “207,” I said.  The manager wore a blue shirt that said staff in white letters. He asked me my name and my mom’s phone number. He called my mom’s cell phone and told her I was lost. He said he would bring me to her. I was excited and sad because I couldn’t wait to see my family. I was worried that I might not find my family right away. Then I got to the seats with the manager. I saw my mom and dad.  My dad looked mad because he had told me to stay with him. My mom was happy that I was safe. The manager said, “I am sorry it took a while to find you.” My dad said, “It’s okay. We got him back.” Then we watched the game. “I will never disobey you again,” I said. The Capitals scored. Everyone was cheering. I think I was cheering the loudest.  I was happy to be safe with my family. 

 

Math

 

                                  

Students are learning that division is the inverse of multiplication.  Students have examined the difference between multiplication and division situations.

                      

The class will be solving multiplication and division number stories. Students are developing an understanding that if one of the factors in a multiplication equation are missing they can use their knowledge of multiplication facts to find the missing factor.

 

Students should be practicing multiplication facts from 0 through 10 in order to become adept at multiplication and help them with division as well.  

 

                                      

 

Social Studies

Students will start the new unit on explorers with a KWL Chart.  Then students will learn about the Vikings and the previously mentioned North American Explorers. Students will connect their learning in social studies to reading informational text.

                           

 

Students have done a fantastic job with the READING AT HOME program this year.  Let's continue that momentum!!!

 

                                              

 

Will the Ground Hog See His Shadow?

 

February 2, 2015

 

Language Arts

 

Students are engaged in reading international folktales. They learned the difference between folktales and tall tales.                 

 

 

                    

 

                                          

 

 

Students are reading folktales and comparing and contrasting them.  Students had the opportunity to read The Seven Chinese Brothers and wrote a summary of the story. Next students read The Five Chinese Brothers.  Following this, they discussed the similarities and differences in these two books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the ASCD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/110126/chapters/Section-1@-Why-Compare-$-Contrast%C2%A2.aspx

Comparative thinking is one of our first and most natural forms of thought. When we are infants, one of the first differences we must identify is that between mother and other. Without the ability to make comparisons—to set one object or idea against another and take note of similarities and differences—much of what we call learning would quite literally be impossible.

You may be wondering why we want to look so closely at comparative thinking. What makes it so special? The answer lies in the research of renowned educators Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock (2001). By compiling the available research on effective instruction, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock found that strategies that engage students in comparative thinking had the greatest effect on student achievement, leading to an average percentile gain of 45 points (p. 7f). More recently, Marzano's research in The Art and Science of Teaching (2007) reconfirmed that asking students to identify similarities and differences through comparative analysis leads to eye-opening gains in student achievement.

Although comparative thinking is a natural operation of our minds and is essential to learning.

 Writing

In writing, students are in the process of writing a personal narrative about a lesson learned. First the class discussed stories they read over the course of the year.  Then students decided the lesssons the characters learned in these stories.  After this, students brainstormed ideas that they could use for their writing piece. Finally, students wrote seed ideas in their writer's notebook to use when they start writing their stories. Stay tuned for the finished products.

 

 

Math

Students will start a new unit on multiplication. In this unit students will use the concept of arrays as a way to see the factors and find the product in a multiplication problem.

                                     

Students will find different ways to form arrays for particular numbers.  As a result, students visually determine that a given number has multiple factors. Students will then use arrays to find factors of numbers up to 50 and will identify the features of numbers. 

 

Students can more readily develop an understanding of multiplication concepts if they see visual representations of the computation process. For example, they can picture students in a marching band arranged in equal rows or chairs set up in rows in an auditorium. These arrangements all have something in common; they are all in rows and columns. An arrangement of objects, pictures, or numbers in columns and rows is called an array. Arrays are useful representations of multiplication concepts.

This array has 4 rows and 3 columns. It can also be described as a 4 by 3 array.

This array has 5 rows and 4 columns. It is a 5 by 4 array.

Notice that the rows in each array are equal. Think of the rows as equal groups. Look at this example.

When equal groups are arranged in equal rows, an array is formed.

When you show students the connection between equal groups and arrays, students can easily understand how to use arrays to multiply. They will use arrays again later to divide.

Look at the multiplication sentence that describes the array below. The numbers in multiplication sentences have special names.

The numbers that are multiplied are called factors. The answer is called the product.

Now look at what happens to the factors and product in the multiplication sentence when the array is turned on its side.

The order of the factors changed, but the product stayed the same. http://www.eduplace.com/math/mw/background/3/05/te_3_05_overview.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Week of January 19, 2015

Language Arts

Students will engage in reading tall tales. 

             

 They will identify the characteristics of this genre.

 

 

 

                    

Tall Tales from Mr. M

 

 

Students will listen to the story of Paul Bunyan and then listen to the story of The Bunyans.

 

     

 

 

 

 After they will work on summarizing these stories, students will compare and contrast these two stories. 

 

                            

 

 

 

 

 In addition, students will watch a video of Paul Bunyan and come to the understanding there are various versions of this story.

 

 

                      

 

 

Mathematics

Students are learning about using fractions on a number line.

 

 

           

 

 

They will discover ways to find equivalents on a number line as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

                 

 

 

Science

 

Students will finalize their study of the moon.  Students have learned that the earth revolves around the sun and that the moon revolves around the earth. They have also learned the phases of the moon and are keeping a moon log to reinforce their understanding of the moon phases.

 

 

 

 

                                           

          

 

 

 

Welcome Back to School and the start of a New Year!

 

 

The class will start the new year with new units in language arts, math and science.

 

 

 

In reading students will learn about the genre characteristics and text structure of folktales. Before the class starts folktales students will review the genre of historical and realistic fiction. Knowing the genre and text structure of stories will aid reading comprehension. Students will also transfer their learning of summarizing nonfiction text to summarizing fictional stories. This new unit will focus on theme and lessons learned by the characters. The culmination of the unit will be a reader's theater which the class will perform for a younger audience. The purpose of this reader's theater is to ensure the students understand and project to the audience the lesson learned by the character.

 

 

                                      

 

 

 

 

 

In writing students will write a narrative piece in which they learned a lesson.  Students will use stories they read in class to help build the background knowledge for this writing performance task.

 

                        

 

 

 

 

In math, students will study fractions. Students start with understanding a whole can be divided into equal parts. They will label the fraction parts of a rectangle and discuss the size of such fractions as l/2, l/4, l/8, l/3 and l/6. As they work on this unit they will understand the difference between the numerator and denominator in a fraction.

 

 

In science students will study the phases of the moon. They will learn that the moon has 8 phases - New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous,  Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last or Third Quarter, and Waning Crescent. Students will be responsible for keeping a moon journal for the month in order to understand these phases. Students will read and learn facts about the moon and compare it to the earth and sun. 

 

                          

 

Students completed their Native American reports just before the holiday break.  Here is an example of the report  which a student wrote.

 

The Plains Native Americans

by Ashley

 

 

                                           

 

 

The Plains Native Americans inhabited a place in the United States called the Great Plains. The Great Plains is in the middle of our country. The Great Plains is west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. It is north of Mexico and south of Canada. It is a very flat place with almost no trees. This information is about the Plains' location.

 

                       

 

The men and women had many jobs. Hunting buffalo was a very important job for the Plains Indian men. The men were also great fighters. Another job was to guard their camp and to make sure other tribes were not going to attack them. Men also made tools like bows and arrows from bones, stone and wood. They taught their sons to hunt. The men had lots of jobs. The women did many jobs too. They tanned buffalo hides and cooked the food for the rest of the family. Another task was to collect berries, wild rice, and turnips. The women made the clothing out of hides. They had to tan the hides to make the clothing. The women taught their daughters to make clothes and cook dinner. The women were very important to their tribe.

 

                                        

 

Here are some of the foods of the Plains Indians. They ate meat from the buffalo. The meat that could not be eaten right away was made into jerky. Jerky was dried buffalo meat that had been pounded into a powder. Animal fat was added. Blood from the buffalo was put in a soup or made into pudding. The women collected berries and grapes to eat. The men hunted deer, elk, and moose. They also caught and ate little animals such as rabbits, gophers, and prairie chickens. The Plains had a bunch of food!

 

                                     

 

A tipi was a Plains Indian's home. Here are some facts about it. The women were in charge of the inside of the tipi. The men were in charge of the outside of the tipi. Inside the tipi there was a fire and a hole for smoke to get out. The men painted the outside of the tipi with good deeds they had done. The women got to put the tipi wherever they wanted because they were in charge of it. These are some facts about the Plains Indian homes.