The Sixth Sense

Reading
We finished reading “S.O.R. Losers.”  Students were analyzing character traits and discussing how these traits impact the plot events and resolution of a story.  We have also been looking at vocabulary words that have different shades of meaning and discussing how to use context clues to determine the appropriate definition of a word.

Book clubs are continuing to meet.  Students have been dialoguing with their group members about the assigned readings and sharing the roles that they had completed (i.e. artful artist, word wizard, connector).  Ask you child to share with you what their book is about and whether or not they are enjoying the story so far.

Math
In Mrs. Johnson’s math class, students learned to write the prime factorization of a number, both in expanded notation and exponential form.  Students also learned to find the GCF of a pair of numbers by using prime factorization.  We also did problem solving in preparation for the chapter 3 test.  Students took the chapter 3 posttest and the chapter 5 pretest.  We will begin chapter 5 on Monday.

In Mrs. MItchell’s math class, we studied for the chapter 3 test, which was taken on Thursday.  We will begin chapter 5 on Monday.  In this chapter, we will continue to work on division.  Students will learn how to divide and find a decimal quotient.  We will not be using remainders anymore.

Science
This past week we were talking about clouds.  Students learned how clouds are formed, and in the Kids Discover magazine, we read about many different types of clouds and discussed what each one looks like as well as what type of weather each forecasts.  Students also learned about air masses and the three different frontal systems:  warm front, cold front, and stationary front.  We ended this week talking about how to read a weather map.

Social Studies
We are continuing to discuss immigration.  We learned about the journey to America and about how 9 out of 10 immigrants entered America using Ellis Island.  The students are currently working on plays which they will act out in front of the class.

Writing/English
In Mrs. Mitchell’s class, we are outlining our persuasive topics.  Students chose a topic that they felt strongly about to persuade a certain audience to think or do.  There are some interesting topics!  We will be working on adding supporting details to our writing by using an outline.  After that, we will begin our rough draft.  This is one of my favorite pieces because the students are so creative with their arguments.  Our first English test is on Monday.  Students have known about it for a week.  We completed a practice test in class to review the concepts in unit 1.  Use this to help you study with your child.

In Mrs. Johnson’s class, we are finishing up the English unit on sentence structure.  We learned about compound predicates, conjunctions, and compound sentences.  Next week we will have the unit test.  We also continue to work on Daily Language Review to practice grammar skills.

Reading
Our first two lessons in Theme 2 focused on plot and character.  Students have been analyzing the personality traits of the main character and discussing how these traits impact the plot of a story.  The stories we read in class were “Befiddled” and “S.O.R. Losers.”  We have also been looking at vocabulary words that have multiple meanings and discussing how to use context clues to determine the appropriate definition of a word.

Book clubs also met for the first time this week.  Students dialogued with their group members about the assigned reading and shared the role that they had completed (i.e. artful artist, word wizard, connector).  Ask you child to share with you what their book is about and whether or not they are enjoying the story so far.

Math

In Mrs. Johnson’s and Mrs. Mitchell’s math classes, students learned to write and solve division expressions and equations.  We also talked about how to use the order of operations (“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.) to solve challenging, multi-step equations.  In another lesson, students learned how estimate division equations using compatible numbers.  We also did problem solving where students had to decide whether or not an answer was reasonable based on the information presented in the problem.  Mrs. Johnson’s class did problem solving that involved creating a list or table to find the correct answer.  Some of Mrs. Johnson’s enrichment activities over the past two weeks included solving multi-step equations, “mystery numbers,” and “magic squares.”

Science
In our meteorology unit, students learned about humidity and relative humidity and about hygrometers, which are used to find the air’s humidity level.  We also talked about radar and how it is used to track storm systems.  In the Kids Discover magazine on weather, we read about different clues in nature that relate to weather forecasting.

Social Studies
Our Reconstruction unit is over.  We are now moving on to Immigration.  Students will learn why people immigrated, what they brought with them, what the voyage was like to America, as well as how they began their new lives in America.  We will be using the book Immigrant Kids to guide us through this unit.

Writing/English
In Mrs. Mitchell’s class, students completed their personal narratives.  Our next writing piece will involve persuasive writing.  In English, we discussed conjunctions and compound sentences.  We will be finishing our first English unit soon.

In Mrs. Johnson’s class, students spent time editing their rough draft and then wrote the final published copy.  Students submitted their personal narrative unit for the final grade.   In English, we learned about compound subjects.  We also continue to work on Daily Language Review to practice grammar skills.