Reader's Workshop
To start this week, we got right back into our group's topic by looking at specific words authors use to make us as readers feel a certain way. We tried to recognize when authors use language to persuade us as opposed to logic and evidence. Then, we practiced identifying goals and techniques that authors use. On Wednesday, our groups prepared for a debate that we had on Friday to finish off our opinion unit in reading. Each group had a scenario that they were portraying in the debate to convince us of their side. The debates went really well and the students had many good pieces of evidence to use from their articles. Writer's Workshop As we finished our final argument essays, we added a few key adjustments to our writing. First, we talked about how to use language that makes our evidence and reasons incontestable. Including statements that are untrue discredits us as authors so we wanted to make sure everything we said in our essays was true. Then, we talked about editing: breaking up our information into paragraphs logically. We don't want to have large chunks of text, nor do we want many small pieces of text in our essays. We all finished our final essay drafts and took our opinion writing post-assessment on Thursday. Math In math this week, we learned another strategy for subtracting fractions: renaming. When the fraction part of a mixed number is smaller in the number that comes first, we need to rename the mixed number in order to subtract the fractions. We also identified patterns in fractions by renaming them to figure out what the rule for each pattern is. Social Studies This week, Ms. Wu continued teaching the students about the causes of the revolution. This is what she did: The students finished the first (long) lesson about the events that lead to the American Revolution. We continued on with the topics of how the colonists worked together, why the colonists wanted to become independent, and who caused change in the colonies. As I explained to the students, the format of this unit was that the first lesson was an overview of all the events leading up to the revolution. The second, third, and fourth lesson were all thematic topics looking back at the various events and people in the first lesson with a specific lens. When the students get back from break, we will have a review, and the test for this unit will most likely be on Tuesday. Students also need to know the geography of the 13 colonies, including the names and locations of each colony and the three different regions. Extras In P.E. with Coach Mitchell, we had our final dance performances for the dance unit (videos can be found on Seesaw). We also had music and got to work on a STEAM Valentine project. On Friday, we had our Valentine's Day party and it was a lot of fun. Thank you Mrs. Lolayekar, Mrs. Coke, Mrs. Hou and all the other parents that helped put everything together!
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Reader's Workshop
We have been researching the same topics for a while now so this week, we started by finishing those up. We had short, informal presentations about the main arguments we found in our groups' topics. Then, we chose new topics for our reading groups to study so we can dive deeper into new issues by making a group plan for research. We also talked about how our group's conversation could spark new ideas or questions and used sentence starters to initiate our discussions. Finally, we discussed different goals and techniques that authors of arguments use in their writing to make readers feel a certain way or do certain things. Writer's Workshop This week we got to start writing our argument essays on a topic of our choice! To start the week, we worked on choosing powerful claims that we are passionate about and can create change. Once we had our claims set, we started to look towards collecting evidence. This was done either using primary research or by finding articles that were written by experts. Good writers have a mix of both. As we researched, we wrote pieces of evidence that we found to be interesting and tried to organize them based on what idea they supported. Using an outline template, we organized each piece of evidence under a common reason to help support our claims. This outline template is a tool for incorporating the general structure of an essay. Finally, we talked about how adding other types of writing, like narratives, can reach our audience in a different way. Next week we will finish the final argument essays and publish them for people to read. Math After taking the pre-assessment, I thought it would be best to teach the class in small groups for this fraction unit. Their assignments are not all the same but the general topics will be. This week, we started by looking at factors: what they are and how we can find the prime factors of a number. Then, we learned different strategies for finding the least common denominator of fractions. We talked about using the multiples of the numbers or multiplying the two denominators by each other. We can also use the prime factors of each denominator. After practicing this, we used our knowledge to solve addition and subtraction problems involving fractions with unlike denominators, then, transferred this knowledge to adding and subtracting mixed numbers. Science Ms. Wu finished up the science unit with them this week. They reviewed the unit on Monday and took their unit test on Tuesday. Social Studies She also started the next social studies unit with them. This is what she had to say: We started our unit on Causes of the Revolutionary War. The first lesson was very long, and we still haven't covered everything, so we will continue with that lesson first thing next week. I am trying different note-taking strategies with the kids including, question and answer, flow chart diagrams, and fill in the blanks. We talked about how these different methods can be useful for different applications in note-taking. For example, flow charts can help with understanding chronology and order or cause and effect. My hope is that the students will begin to use these various methods in their own note-taking. Extras There were many fun things we did this week, in addition to having P.E. with Coach Mitchell and music with Ms. Mesch. We got to have art with Mrs. Fish on Wednesday and are making some special projects. We also got together with our kindergarten buddies to make Valentine's cards with working circuits! Another fun thing we are working on is our STEAM projects: designing and building something to hold our Valentine cards next Friday. I am looking forward to a great last week before break! I apologize for the delay in updates! The past few weeks have been very busy and I am still getting back into the routine of posting updates on here.
Reader's Workshop During the last few weeks of reader's workshop, we have had debates, learned how to annotate texts, and came up with new ideas about argumentative texts to help us understand our issues better. Then, we identified certain techniques that authors of opinion writing use to achieve specific goals. We also identified perspective and talked about how that can change the message of the writing and worked on strategies to use when texts become more difficult. Writer's Workshop When we got back from our three-day weekend, Mrs. Prouse wrote us a reply to our chocolate milk letters, urging us to dive deeper into the issue. Over the last 2 weeks, we worked on connecting different articles to support a common reason, how to write effective introductions and conclusions, and acknowledging counterclaims to help our own arguments. We also learned to deliberately choose pieces of evidence that are the most effective and how to sway an audience by appealing to things they would care about. Math We finished up our decimal unit and we are now onto fractions! The past week, we started learning about fraction strips, estimating fractions, and finding prime factors. This fraction unit will be much longer than others so we will be working with fractions for a while. Social Studies Ms. Wu completed the science unit about chemistry and this is her summary of what the students did last week: We started our next unit- Chemical Magic. The lessons in this unit all revolve around chemical reactions. The kids had a really fun time learning and doing the activities in this unit. They learned a lot of new vocabulary, including particles, dissolving, reactions, acids, and gases. The students brought home a review packet over the weekend, and we went over it in class. Extras We continued our interpretive dance unit in P.E. with Coach Mitchell and music with Ms. Mesch. Our music performance will be Thursday, April 9 at 9:20 and another show at 10:30. Come watch the students perform all the songs they've learned this year! We are also learning a lot about grammar. We have finished simple sentences and compound sentences and are now learning about complex sentences. Ms. Wu is also teaching them spelling so they are really tackling many disciplines. |
AuthorUpdates on the class will occur regularly and you can check back here to see what's happening at school. Archives
March 2020
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