Week of March 20-24, 2023 (Release at 1:00 Friday the 24th)
*Chess does meet this week; Wed., 3/22 @ 7:15 am in cafeteria.
*Roller Skating continues this week!! Please remind your child to wear or bring good socks! (and they'll be skating with the other class at 8:00 am Friday due to the early release at 1:00 that day).
*IAR testing will take place again this week, March 20-22, each morning (3 ELA tests, 90 minutes each); please refrain from making appointments those mornings, and truly encourage your child to attend each day, well-rested and ready to do their best!
*May 2: Field trip to Midway Village Civil War Days--thanks to our parents who volunteered to chaperone!
*Be sure to see the classroom pictures in the Gallery Tab to the left!
March monthly newsletter with general info is available through a link on the left side of my webpage at pcwolves.net.
Scott BR Book reading: A new book of choice and its project started last Tuesday--the project this time is all on paper. Students will follow directions to complete each part of a flipbook, with each level requiring different work. The writing topics include the following: Life Lessons the story teaches; finding a complex vocab word to define, find context evidence and elaborate on HOW to use that for the meaning; Delve topic (research) of something mentioned in the novel; 3 great quotes or lines from the story, written in color and different styles of "fonts"; and a ToSEEC demonstrating how the author chose to illustrate a specific theme. This signed bookmark and project will be due Thursday, April 6 (the Thursday after Spring Break). I've encouraged the kids to complete as much as they can before break so they don't have to worry about it that week. Happy reading!
"In-Class" Reading: We'll begun an extended slideshow focusing on "Inspiration." We'll be utilizing some shorter texts, articles, and videos for our evidence and connecting it all in a final essay (a bit down the road). I've taken the idea of "Inspiration" and created four mini-groupings: Inspiration through 1) Understanding; 2) Creativity; 3) Advice; 4) Nature. First: Understanding. We've already read two texts: Snow Day and "Night of the Pomegranate." We've already started creating a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the authors' approaches to presenting the theme of understanding, and will use that Venn to guide an extended response. After that, we move to the Creativity aspect of Inspiration. Kids will view and react to six different paintings, then create a "backstory" inspired by the painting of their choice. We'll also read about Rube Goldberg, watch a video inspired by his complex machines, read letters by Pixar artists, and combine those into an extended response to explain the inspiration and creativity connection. Next, we'll be using the story "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street" as a kick-off for the Advice and Inspiration connection. We'll read it aloud in class as readers theater (and noticing the great alliterations the author created!) before listing each character's piece of advice for a girl who's suffering from a bit of writer's block. Using one of the pieces of advice, students will write a "What if...?" story, inspired by actions within our own classroom. Partner will then read each other two short stories that contain a moral or advice, summarize said stories, and paraphrase that advice. If time permits, two short stories will be read together, "Half the Size, Twice the Man" (a Rick Reilly article) and "The Back of David's Head" (which approaches inspiration from a different perspective).
Scott Math: Math will be a bit shorter a couple days this week due to the longer IAR ELA tests. Monday: An online Savvas Review will be started (and hopefully completed) in class with a variety of skills including area of shapes and rates. HW: Finish the online assignment. Tuesday: We'll start a quick visit to percents. A quick color by number with percent problems will be started. HW: Finish color by number. Wednesday: Percents as fractions (sometimes reducing the fraction first so the denominator can "go into" 100 evenly). Short word problems will be the focus (and turning the fraction into a decimal, then multiplying. HW: WS of the same type of percent problems (use notes for help). Thursday: First, students will choose pictures of several items to copy/paste onto a pretend "store" slideshow, along with a sales tax rate for their "store". These will be used Friday. They'll start i17-1 in Savvas (also working with percents) when done making their slides. HW: finish i17-1. Friday: Students will, using a WS, move around the classroom to each person's slideshow to "purchase" items, converting the sales tax rate to a decimal, figure-out the total cost, and also subtract for change from a twenty. Calculators will be allowed. No HW.
Language: Monday and Tuesday, students will: 1) Finish creating short "Author's Viewpoint Writing" chunks about three responsibilities they love and three responsibilities they really dislike. Each chunk requires 2 positive or negative adjectives and three positive or negative adverb/-ing verb combinations. The emphasis is on strong word choice--it should be very clear from the words chosen how the person feels about the specific responsibility (no sentences, just the words will be typed); 2) A final copy will be hand-written on a form I provide.
3) Young Author writing will also be due by Friday--3 pages, double-spaced, typed minimum. When kids aren't helping the kindergarten students roller skate W & Th in PE, they'll be working on their stories and thinking of a cover design. If they've finished these items, they'll start planning and writing their next narrative essay: Three Favorite Activities. A planning slideshow will be in Language, and patterned sentences will be created, of course. :)
Social Studies: This week, Camila will present a Blooket she made about Mexico for the class to challenge themselves--lots of geography and word questions. She asked to make one, and I'm excited for her to share her work! Also, on Friday, the kids will move around the room, choosing from multiple choice answer papers to see what Northern Illinois counties they know. When finished and after checking as a class, a slideshow will be completed by each that will ultimately be their notes for studying those counties and their county seats. Weekly Reflection will be completed Friday morning this week.
Science: This week, we'll continue to connect to the Amplify weather unit by completing a weather online scavenger hunt started last week that focuses on thunderstorms and tornadoes, using different links to find the information. We'll also have a few "brain breaks" after each IAR test: a notecard puzzler and creating a hexagonal pyramid from a paper net (on which the Enhanced Fujita scale will eventually be written). Friday Ted-Ed video--The incredible, bendable, twistable, expandable elephant trunk.