LOTS OF LEARNING

December is usually a productive month in the classroom and this year is no different.  As we transition into new books and a new math unit, we also find ourselves managing a few projects and fun topics in science and social studies.  These next two weeks aim to be full of enjoyable learning activities as we head into a deserved winter break.  Below is the learning snapshot for this week with a couple new categories.

MATH:  We will spend Monday revising our work on the unit test from Friday.  Starting Tuesday, we will jump into our new Unit 4: Decimals and Coordinate Grids.  Family letter will go home Tuesday evening with background information for the unit.  We will be in the middle of Unit 4 when Winter Break starts.

READING:  This week students will read the 2nd section of their books.  Literature Journal 2 A/B is due this Friday.  For this work, readers are comparing real world information about explorers from our textbook to scenes in our chapter books, focused on characters who are on a journey.

SS/WRITING:  We are slowly entering our Discovery theme work.  This unit is turning out different than past years just due to timing.  Usually, we finish most of it before break, but it looks like this year we will pick up in the middle after break.  As a part of our learning about the Age of Exploitation and colonization of the "New World", students are creating Passport assignments in the classroom and for homework.  3 Passport assignments with a total of 21 points will gain each student passage to a 5th grade "journey" on Dec 21., the last day before break.  We are working on Passports in class a bit and also beginning to plan our role playing game, Discovery, where colonies of students attempt to sail to the New World and start a successful colony despite realistic hardships.

SCIENCE:  We are planning our 5th Grade Community project a little bit each week.  Also, we are focusing on Matter.  Our first activity spurred a lot of discussion about elements, atoms, and states of matter.  Some of our Matter work will also connect to our community project.

CATTV:  Each 5th grader is in a group to plan some aspect of filming footage for our CATTV project.  Each group has a topic connected to our school construction.  Students are collaborating in person and via technology to plan their portions of our filming.  There's a lot going on!  So we are working 2 days a week on this project.

This picture below is from our preschool Buddy Time.  We enjoyed the Kindergarten winter performance together. 

CLASSY MUSEUM OF NATIVE AMERICA!

Our Native American museum exhibits are wonderful.  Historians did a fantastic job presenting their work last week.  Their projects, ranging from NA shelter and hunting to masks, pottery, and kachinas, are still decorating our classroom.  As always, this class pulled off impressive work and we enjoyed sharing.  Thank you for all your help getting kids prepared to share their projects.  Enjoy pictures of projects and more of the Potlatch celebration below.

This week we are transitioning in a few subjects and there is a description of our work below.

MATH: We will finish the fraction unit this week with a math test on Friday!  There will be a study guide and math homework each night this week.

READING: This week we are choosing new books based on a Journey theme.  Each book has a character going on a type of journey.  This dynamic will match our studies of the Age of Exploration in Social Studies.  Some students will choose to read in a book club, but they also have a choice to read a journey book by themselves too.  There will be weekly literature journal assignments with this reading cycle.

SS/WRITING:  We will spend a day reflecting on our Native American work.  Then we will start getting into the Age of Exploration.  Our work will be nestled in a theme we call Discovery.  This integrated work includes weekly projects in writing, mapping, and other skills.  There will be a packet for the theme in next week's folder but we will start the foundation this week.

SCIENCE:  We are working on many things during science time.  Each student will finish sharing their community inspirations on Monday. We will discuss and choose our 5th grade community project.  We might have another beeclipse lesson or we will start our matter unit.  Our science time will also be used to help plan our CATTV projects.