Catching Up

A little bit of snow fun this past week.

Each year, after the holidays have wound down, the month of January races toward us with lightning speed and really, from now until June, it never slows down.  So when I needed to look up something on the blog and realized how long it's been since I last updated it, I panicked!  So consider this a bit of a catch up for you and hopefully, it won't be so long until my next one!

Math-  We just finished the 3rd module centered around adding and subtracting fractions with a heavy focus on operations with mixed numbers.  The students felt confident overall with this subject as it was review from 4th grade.  The module was relatively quick as will the next one, multiplying and dividing fractions.  We hope to finish and have the assessment before February break.

Remember, there are some awesome online resources that can help your child in supporting homework in each lesson of the modules as well as reviewing previously covered material to keep it fresh in their minds.  I also can't endorse practicing Math facts enough.  Knowing them fluently and quickly is literally half the battle in our Math class.

Homework Help videos for the Modules we are using
IXL for spiral practice (user name and password are both student ID)
Reflex for fact fluency (hartcheri)

Reading-  We are wrapping up a book club unit on Keeping Track of Characters.  Students chose and read a book with their peers and their challenge was to apply the skill of paying attention to characters and their traits, noticing when those traits began to change in the story and why and then finally being able to re-identify the traits the character took away from the story and why.  This often tied into the theme of the story as well.  This kind of close reading can be hard because our voracious readers just want to read.  I can say that more than a few lightbulbs have been turned on because as we are reading other shared texts like The One and Only Ivan, they are noticing important spots or times of change and shout it out.

One way you can help is to add the question, "What are you reading?' to your dinnertime conversation but don't stop there!  Add in questions like, what is your character like?  Do you relate to him or her?  What's the major problem he or she is going through?  Have you noticed anyone that has an influence on your character?  How is the character changing?  And finally, read what they are reading!  It's fun to be able to talk about the books your children are reading (and there many good ones!)  Here are a few favorites floating around our room (just to name a few).

• The Land of Stories (all 3!)- Chris Colfer
• The Maze Runner- James Dashner
• Bystander- James Preller
• A Week in the Woods- Andrew Clements
• Lucky: Maris, Mantle and My Best Summer Ever
• The One and Only Ivan- Katherine Applegate
• Harry Potter- JK Rowling
• Don't Feed the Boy- Irene Latham
• El Deafo- Cece Bell
• A Tiger Rising- Kate DiCamillo

Writing-  We've been studying how to be journalists!  The students self selected a topic they wanted to know more about and we spent a large portion of time learning proper research skills, including how to cite a sources and note taking (using Google Docs).  From there, we used National Geographic Kids as our model to write interesting, informative paragraphs that worked hard to keep the reader's attention.  Using Google Drawings, we then learned the dos and don'ts of graphic design and worked to create eye catching, gorgeous but informative articles ready for publication.  The final week is coming up.  All articles are due this Friday, February 6th.  Ask your child to show his or her article in their Google Drive.  Next up...opinion writing!

Science-  We are at the end of studying the digestive system (quiz on Monday!) and will be spending the next two weeks working with partners to dream up and design a digestive system game.  The object, of course, is to get through the digestive system without getting "hung up" along the way.  The students have already researched 10 healthy and 10 unhealthy things you can do for your digestive system along with 5 diseases or disorders.  From there, they will write "situation" cards that will be used in a fun, cooperative game.  Stay tuned for photos of the final projects.

Other

• A final fundraiser (through Krause's candy) will be coming home Monday.  All orders will come in by March.  Please be on the lookout for that information.
• Our NEW book club selection is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  The meeting date to follow soon!  Check out the write up in the Altamont Enterprise of our last selection, Wonder.
• Bronx Zoo commitment letter is due back to school Monday.  We need to make some financial decisions based upon how many chaperones are attending.