Week of September 13-17

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend!  Last week the students researched and presented posters on the 5 major geographic regions of the United States and their work was phenomenal!  The posters look terrific and they will be on display in our hallway for all to see!  I was very impressed with the high quality of their work and the teamwork I saw during the project.  I will try to post pictures later this week!

I am also excited to share that we now have two parent volunteers who will be coming in once a week.  One parent will be helping with math instruction and the other will be assisting with reading instruction!  If you would like to volunteer to help out in the classroom, please contact me.  There are many ways to help out and I am to have parents work with small groups to help differentiate instruction!

Upcoming Tests:
Friday:  Word Study Quiz over Homophones & Social Studies test over Native Americans (ch. 2 of History Alive)
*Please checkout my Links page for a number of great resources to help you practice homophones!
*Remember to use the History Alive website to take the tutorial that will help you study for the test.  You are welcome to take your social studies book home any night as long as you take the one that has your assigned number on it and return it the next day.

This Week's Guiding Questions:

This coming week we will continue with our current math unit, but we will begin new units in all other areas.

Math:
How do I use probability to understand chance?  How do I use different methods for solving multiplication problems?
*We will continue reviewing the different operations used for numerical computation and estimation this week with a test to follow late next week.

Writing:
How do we collect ideas for persuasive writing?
*Now that we have discussed the 6 major traits of writing we will begin our first genre study over persuasive writing.

Social Studies:
How did the first Native Americans come to North America and adapt to their new environment?
*We will begin the first of many units on American history this week starting with the exploration of various theories as to how the first Native Americans arrived in North America.

Word Study:
How do I identify the correct spelling of homophones?
*We will learn the difference between a homophone, homonym, and homograph and then learn the difference between homophones (words that sound the same, but have a different meaning).

Reading:
How do I read a text and interpret it's meaning?
*Now that we have reviewed the metacognition strategies we are going to begin read a Junior Great Book story together and use those strategies to interpret the meaning of the story, to explore new vocabulary, and to participate in shared inquiry discussions.