Up and coming in the next few weeks.........
Reading and Language Arts: As we continue to build and strengthen our reading comprehension skills, we have been hard at work practicing the skill of Close Reading. Understanding that complex text requires a slow and steady approach, we have become experts at reading for the"gist" and creating summary statements as we read. Next skill we will be tackling is using various Questioning Techniques to infer the meaning of text. As well as, understanding how to use our "schema" or background knowledge in combination with new learning to help us better understand what we read. We are currently reading The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach as a class to practice and apply these skills. In addition, we are meeting regularly in small group book clubs. Each group is collaborating and engaged in the work of purposeful talk about their own novel. This is a highlight of the week for many of us!
Writing: This month's focus on writing will be Informative Writing. We will be practicing the skill of writing to an audience with the intention of informing. The close of our current IB unit will have us creating individual books on our own government formation and its structures within. We are also continuing to write in response to reading. We are currently immersed in the skill of summarizing text and creating summary statements with the books we are reading. We have learned a new strategy call SWBST or Somebody, Wanted, But, So Then. This is helping us understand the difference between retelling and summarizing.
Math: We have just finished up our current unit on Factors, Multiples and Patterns. The work in this unit laid the foundation for our next two units that will have us tackling the sometimes challenging work of understanding Fractions and Decimals. We begin the unit focusing on the understanding of fractional parts of a whole and comparing sizes of fractions. Then we moving into how to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators, as well as conversion of fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.
IB Unit of Study: We are very excited to begin our trans-disciplinary theme How We Organize Ourselves. This unit we will focus on our central idea of how governments are organized to provide structure for groups of people. Through the use of the key concepts of form, function and responsibility, we will inquire about how governments are formed, what function government's play in people's lives and the rights of individuals in government.
Social Emotional Learning: We continue to explore the complicated feelings that come along with everyday life and the interactions we have with others. This month in Second Step we are working on how to identify when we are having strong feelings and emotions. Then we work at establishing an action plan that can assist as we work through the feelings. We also explore how we can handle those feelings as we interact and establish continued relations with our peers.
Reading and Language Arts: As we continue to build and strengthen our reading comprehension skills, we have been hard at work practicing the skill of Close Reading. Understanding that complex text requires a slow and steady approach, we have become experts at reading for the"gist" and creating summary statements as we read. Next skill we will be tackling is using various Questioning Techniques to infer the meaning of text. As well as, understanding how to use our "schema" or background knowledge in combination with new learning to help us better understand what we read. We are currently reading The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach as a class to practice and apply these skills. In addition, we are meeting regularly in small group book clubs. Each group is collaborating and engaged in the work of purposeful talk about their own novel. This is a highlight of the week for many of us!
Writing: This month's focus on writing will be Informative Writing. We will be practicing the skill of writing to an audience with the intention of informing. The close of our current IB unit will have us creating individual books on our own government formation and its structures within. We are also continuing to write in response to reading. We are currently immersed in the skill of summarizing text and creating summary statements with the books we are reading. We have learned a new strategy call SWBST or Somebody, Wanted, But, So Then. This is helping us understand the difference between retelling and summarizing.
Math: We have just finished up our current unit on Factors, Multiples and Patterns. The work in this unit laid the foundation for our next two units that will have us tackling the sometimes challenging work of understanding Fractions and Decimals. We begin the unit focusing on the understanding of fractional parts of a whole and comparing sizes of fractions. Then we moving into how to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators, as well as conversion of fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.
IB Unit of Study: We are very excited to begin our trans-disciplinary theme How We Organize Ourselves. This unit we will focus on our central idea of how governments are organized to provide structure for groups of people. Through the use of the key concepts of form, function and responsibility, we will inquire about how governments are formed, what function government's play in people's lives and the rights of individuals in government.
Social Emotional Learning: We continue to explore the complicated feelings that come along with everyday life and the interactions we have with others. This month in Second Step we are working on how to identify when we are having strong feelings and emotions. Then we work at establishing an action plan that can assist as we work through the feelings. We also explore how we can handle those feelings as we interact and establish continued relations with our peers.