General News
- MLK Jr. Day is coming up this Monday, January 20th. We will not have school. We hope you enjoy the long weekend!
- On Tuesday, January 21st part 1 of their project is due. For part one they simply needed to do a little research and select their top 3 abolitionists to research and write a speech about later on in the quarter. There was also a fun podcast listening assignment. Hopefully you were able to enjoy it with your kiddo!
ELA Update
This week in ELA we continued to toggle between typing up our fiction stories and discussing our novel study of Freewater. We sandwiched our publishing in the middle of the week with Freewater discussion on Monday and Thursday. On Monday we went over our homework and discussed many of the twists and turns of the novel so far. Those first chapters are action packed and introduce many new characters quickly! On Thursday we were able to slow down and make connections between the characters by breaking apart the two major worlds of the book: Freewater and the Plantation. We looked at major characters in both worlds and drew a web of how they are all connected to each other, while analyzing their traits and unique personalities. We also used a graphic organizer to analyze their physical characteristics, words, and their unique thoughts and feelings. On Tuesday and Wednesday we continued to dig into our fiction story publishing. On Tuesday we spent most of the ELA class period filling out a plot mountain for our stories to make sure we included a conflict, resolution, and climax and to help us pace our stories and make sure we didn’t get lost in all the fun details, dialogue, and descriptive writing. On Wednesday we continued to dig into writing these delicious stories and set a reasonable timeline of having the typing completely finished by the end of next week!
Math Update
Long division is the name of the game for both classes! This is traditionally a tough skill and we are so proud of the kids’ efforts and resilience as they learn the “moves!” (We’ve been talking a lot about learning long division is a lot like learning the Macarena–it takes repeated practice in order to feel confident!) Next week, we are going to start a “make your own movie theater” project which involves tons of long division! If you happen to have any extra empty shoe boxes at your house, we would love to have some so we can start working on designing dioramas. Check your email for some practice sheets that have been sent especially for kids who were out sick and/or kiddos who would like to get an extra confidence boost. We will pay Gamma Bucks for extra practice! Also, remember that that Whippermathers.com website has lots of tutorials if kids want to “watch” the steps in action.
Theme Update
We started the week introducing students to their take-home P&P project exploring an abolitionist. To help scaffold, we did a station rotation using this interactive image exploring two famous abolitionists: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Student were divided into teams of three students and were charged with using their resource library–both print and mutli-media videos/presentations–to explore their abolitionist in detail. The research was completed independently and when ready, students found their group mates and began compiling their individual research to complete a biographical poster. Groups explored major life event timelines, found relevant/inspiring quotes, and detailed how their abolitionist overcame obstacles to accomplish many brave tasks that changed the fate of so many others in the name of liberty and justice. Kids also completed a self-reflection so they could report how this unit is feeling: What do they want to know more about? How are students feeling? What questions do they still have? Their reflections were so open and insightful.
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