And we're off---the end of the year madness begins! These next two weeks are going to be completely packed with fun activities and also lots of curriculum, as we wind down our school year. This is a four day week for the kids--no school on Friday! Here is a look at our week ahead:
* Suhani will be our star student this week--last week was a bit nutty with schedules, so we will learn more about her this week!
* New Scholastic reading catalogs went home last week. They will be due on Thursday. This will allow me to get the orders in, so that we have our books for summer break.
* The kids should be reading their free choice books for their new reading challenge. They will be doing a book talk about these books for our classroom. We will create a list for summer reading suggestions from these talks.
* In reading we will continue to work with nonfiction text. The kids are getting the hang of determining what is important vs what is interesting. We will work this week to understand the opinion of the author. They will also begin to write down the main idea from a heading and come up with the most important details to accompany this. Our small reading group work is taking on a book club style format. The kids are leading the discussion, deciding on the amount of reading for their assignments, and making their own reading meeting dates. I will still be meeting with the groups, however, they will be running the meetings.
* We will finish up Unit 9 in math this week. The kids will take a practice test on Monday, we will review on Tuesday, and take our final test over the material on Wednesday. A letter explaining the next unit will come home the end of this week. Our next unit will cover reflections and symmetry.
* We will talk about tectonic plates and the layers of the earth in science. The kids will learn about Pangea, and become comfortable with how the moving plates affect our land. We will also look at young and old mountains. The kids will get a study guide over this material later in the week. A quiz over the material will either be this week or the beginning of next week (depending on our schedules).
* We will also begin Chapter 6 in our History Alive books. This chapter looks at the early colonies. We will study Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth. We will learn what factors made these colonies succeed and what factors made some colonies fail. The kids will be taking notes throughout our chapter reading and short video clips. We will have a short quiz over this material the end of this week as well.
* During our WEX time, the kids will finish typing or writing their final drafts on Monday. We will spend the remainder of the week learning about informational writing. This will not be a WEX unit. The kids will learn how to organize their notes and thoughts of factual information. The kids will study the eruptions of Mount St. Helen and Mount Kilauea. We will then write a compare/contrast paper to document their thinking.
* As I said, "Here we go!". Hold on, because these next few weeks are packed and are going to fly. We look forward to a good week ahead! ~Mrs. Galazka
