Math:
This week the Marionettes finished up their percent unit. They started their review on Thursday and will finish it next week. The Saplings started a performance review to assess if they can calculate area and work with scale values. The Vroomsrooms had lesson over negative exponents on Wednesday. Thursday they played Koosh Ball to review the product rule, power rule, quotient rule, and negative exponents rule.
ELA:
We spent the two school days this week talking about our class novels. All classes have passed the halfway point and the action is rising! In each class, students teamed up to answer questions and earn points in two categories: comprehension and vocabulary.
After that we did a deep dive into literature appreciation with activities about the novels they are reading. Saplings and Marionettes are reading In the Reign of Terror, so they got a bonus geography lesson by coloring and labeling the story’s settings on a map of Europe. They also talked about disguises, which in this book are a matter of life and death. Saplings also learned more about the French word, patois, by brainstorming with small groups to generate lists of Texas patois (y’all, evenin’, howdy, etc..) and teenage patois (I can’t even, bruh, etc..).
Vroomshrooms are reading Around the World in Eighty Days, so they began creating a giant globe to track the characters’ trip around the world. They learned more about two vocabulary words by identifying and charting the zenith and nadir of their day.
Theme:
SHORT week this week; shorter than anticipated with an extra day off for weather. Students were able to continue their look into the causes of the French Revolution
After a quick review of our gallery walk, students broke into teams and designed Information Mobiles. Using hangers and the abundance of arts supplies on hand, teams divided up the work to produce Titles to summarize the long term causes, subtitles to outline those causes, and detail cards to dive deeper into those causes.
Students came up with very creative engineered structures for their mobiles, including clouds with thunder, and pots being stirred. The results were shared in the music room.
Next week we will have a guest teacher to help us learn about our Project platform, THINGLINK. Students will be gathering ideas and plans for their projects this weekend for that presentation. They should work forward on their 3D artifact for their projects.
Vroomshrooms playing Koosh Ball
Theme students outline the causes of the French Revolution into Informational mobiles during their mini-project time this week.
Top left and bottom: Vroomshrooms papier mache the earth so we can trace Philleas Fogg’s travels in Around the World in Eighty Days. Top right: Vroomshrooms identify the zenith and nadir of their day.
Top: Marionettes and Saplings color and label the European settings of our book, In the Reign of Fire. Bottom: Marionettes strike a pose after brainstorming elements of a truly effective disguise.
