Classroom Update

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, especially with this beautiful weather.

Last Week....

We began our first class read-aloud of the year. During this time we read a book together as a class. I am able to continue to model the strategies and skills we have worked on in reader's workshop so far this year and introduce new skills. Students will practice these skills in our read aloud book as well as in their current independent reading book. I can tell that all of the students are really enjoying Wonder  by RJ Palacio so far. During this book we will work on building theories about characters and well as tracking narrative story elements. Students have started using sticky notes to tag as we read to provide evidence from the text to support their theories about characters. RJ Palacio tells the story of a fifth grade boy in a very unique was by changing perspectives throughout the story. We will look closely at this unique point of view and how to helps us to develop theories about the characters.

In math we have been making good progress in Topic 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers. Students have learned about the four properties of multiplication, which we also learned can help us when solving problems. Students also learned the very important skills of multiplying by powers of 10. Next we explored the are model to find the product of two factors. This is an essential step in students understanding the procedure for the standard algorithm for multiplication. Students are also working on Xtramath.org to practice the multiplication facts. 

We also continued to revise our narrative stories by looking closely at leads and endings. First we reviewed strategies for creating good leads and endings. Then we looked closely at how you as a writer can revise the lead and ending to bring forth the meaning of the story. 

We have completed our study of the Aztec and used a mind-mapping application to organized the information we learned. We also discussed study strategies for the upcoming Ancient Civilizations test on Thursday 10/29. Students were given a study guide and encouraged to "create" a study tool. 

Classroom Update October

We welcomed in October this week with Open House and cooler weather. It was so nice to see so many families at Open House. Students have accomplished a lot in our first month and were excited to show off their work. 

Thank you for all those who ordered from Scholastic this month; our class has earned many points to use to buy new books. I will place the order on Monday afternoon after students help me choose which books to get with our points. I know they are excited for some new titles! 

Math Workshop: We have completed Topic 2 adding and subtracting decimals this Friday. Students have been using their study guide to study for Monday's assessment. In this unit students not only learned the standard algorithm to add and subtract decimals but they also developed their mental math skills by using rounding and compatible numbers to estimate sums and differences. They also used their mental math skills to check to see if their sum or difference was reasonable. When adding and subtracting students used the acronym ESSC: Estimate, Setup, Solve, Check to help them calculate with precision and accuracy, one of the 8 mathematical practices (aka Math Habits). Students developed their own acronym to remember these steps. 

Reader's Workshop: We have completed our unit on narrative story elements this week. After analyzing a charterer's thoughts, actions, and feelings students were able to identify the traits that describes that character. Next students learned about the different types of conflict in a narrative story. In particularly we focused on character vs. self conflict. Often times this self conflict is "tough" a decision that the character must make, like Ben's decision about pulling Truman's chair in "How Bad Could It Be" from our Storyworks magazine. Then we learned how to develop a theme statement by identifying a theme topic and recalling evidence supporting the topic from the story, to ultimately develop a statement about the author's message. We brought the entire unit of investigating story elements together by learning to write summaries about the books we read. The key to this is choosing which ideas and events are most important. Next week we will begin our first read-aloud of the year: Wonder by RJ Palacio. 

Writer's Workshop: These past two weeks in writer's workshop students worked on developing their narrative story idea. We first talked about the message they want to send their readers by asking themselves, "what is my story really about?" Then we mapped out our story ideas using a story mountain map just as we have learned to map out a story in reader's workshop. After drafting students began revision by identifying the important parts in their story and elaborating on them by adding in sensory details, thought shots, and small actions to help their reader see the importance of their story. This week we will continue to work on a variety of revision strategies. 

Social Studies: Students have completed their guided research on the Maya and used two technology applications to organize their knowledge of the Maya. First students used Google Docs to create a three column vocabulary chart with important words from their Maya study. This will also help students study for their upcoming test. And second students used a word cloud application to share main ideas about the Maya. On Thursday we began to study the Aztec using the same process as we did the for the Maya. Students are also working on note-taking and identifying important ideas in non-fiction text. We will continue our study this week with the Aztec and our final civilization the Inca.