January Update

Welcome back after a nice holiday break! The class came back refreshed and ready to go. We are setting goals for the new year and working on our Growth Mindsets. One of my goals is to post more updates, and get the students involved in posting to this blog.

Reading:
Before break we took some time to read "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball". Students really delved into theme, and social issues surrounding segregation in America in the first half of the 20th century. They researched negro league players, and constructed baseball cards depicting their contributions to the Negro Leagues.

This week we are reading  "Weslandia", a picture book about a boy who is considered an outcast. He takes on building his own civilization in his backyard as a summer project. This is in the fantasy genre, but we are exploring the theme of "being yourself" and students are taking Wesley's lead and creating their own civilizations as a part of their reading assignments this week. Next week we will be looking at expository text that ties into the Water Cycle in science called, "The Story of Snow".


Math: Students have been working hard on multiplying and Dividing decimals as well as working on long division in class. Most recently this week they are diving in to a long fraction unit. Right now, they are reviewing common denominators and other fraction concepts.

Science: In science, we have just wrapped up a long engineering unit that the students were really excited about. I will post pictures of the Ice cube project from before break. This week the students are looking at the water cycle and applying what they know to write a story about the journey of a raindrop! They are really enjoying writing these.

Social Studies: Social Studies time has been spent learning about the 13 colonies. We have learned about the way of life, economy, and regional differences of the colonies. This week we are focusing on the people who were leaders or had large contributions to the success of the colonies. Students are researching these leaders such as Ben Franklin, William Penn, and William Bradford. They are creating presentations on their Google accounts that they will share in class this Friday.