Monday, January 13, 2014

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 1-6-14

Class News
Thank you for your support in gathering supplies for our winter activities.  We had a wonderful day and it would not have been possible without your help!

Readers’ Workshop
This week we will begin our unit on nonfiction texts.  We will first study expository texts, working to identify “just right” books.  Often, with nonfiction texts, students choose books that are too difficult and end up only looking at the pictures.  Our job as readers is to identify books we can read and understand!  This is a reading resolution many of our students set for themselves in the New Year.  Ask your child about their reading resolution!
The 6th Reading BINGO Response is due Tuesday, January 14th.

Writers’ Workshop
This week we are moving into the next phase of our persuasive writing unit.  Students have reviewed their flash drafts and have selected the idea they would like to the next level.  We will be working to gather information about our topics, organize our information, and providing examples to support our ideas.  Ask your child about their persuasive topic.  Students are welcome to bring their Writer’s Notebook home to share their progress.

Skills
Students should study and complete one of the homework options for spelling list 11.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills sheet.  This week’s focus is alphabetical order and conjunctions.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.


Social Studies
Students will continue their study of government with two weeks of lessons focusing on local government.  We will learn the importance of town meetings, as well as the role citizens play in making decisions in their communities.  In addition, students will learn about the services local government provides for the common good and the laws used to keep citizens safe.  Ask your child to explain how services are paid for and who works in the city and county government to keep things running smoothly.  The quiz will be next Thursday, as there is no school Friday

Math
Our new unit "Stories, Tables, and Graphs" starts this week and will only last the next three weeks.  In unit 6, students will develop ideas about patterns they notice when analyzing tables and graphs.  Students will develop "rules," or formulas later in the unit as they begin to attain an early understanding of algebra.  This week students will look at graphs and determine the overall shape of the line graph--increasing, decreasing, or staying the same.  We will also be matching stories to corresponding graphs and finding the difference between values on a line graph (including the difference between a positive and negative value).  The graphs we will be analyzing focus on temperatures, and the corresponding stories discuss particular activities or pieces of clothing that would be appropriate for the temperatures on the graph.  There will be a quiz Friday on our new unit.  There will be no fluency quiz this week, but students should be reviewing 4s and 8s for next week's quiz.

Science

We will continue our study of energy with a review on light energy.  We will also begin taking a more in depth look at thermal, or heat, energy.  Students will explore the creation of heat energy through friction.  Our Sandpaper vs. Silk lab will help us learn about the role texture plays in creating friction.  There will be no quiz this week.

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