Happy Friday Families!
It's hard to believe that we've officially entered our final trimester and Spring Break is only a couple of weeks away! Today we finished the third day and final day of the Illinois Science Assessment. I am proud of the perseverance shown by the students!
Kindly read below to find out what we're learning in class!
Literacy
Our students have been reading a variety of non-fiction texts in order to determine the cause and effect relationships that exist between events and/or people. Some of the topics we have explored have been white-nose bat syndrome and its effect on the bat population, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the effects of owning a wild pet, and the positive effects service dogs can have on veterans.. Next week, our students will read about "women of discovery" who accomplished great feats and helped pave the way for many young girls and women today! These magnificent women include Bessie Coleman, Katherine Johnson, Mae Jemison, and Wilma Rudolph! We will read about them utilizing multiple sources of information, and then practice the skill of pulling the most important information from each source.
Writing
Our students are in the early stages of planning their analytical choice essays. Here, students not only have been given the freedom to choose among a list of topics to explore, they also decided their pro/con stance. Topic choices included: whether students should learn foreign languages in school, GMO information on food labels, and cell phones in the classroom, just to name a few. Students have been utilizing multiple resources to research their topic, plan their introductions, body paragraphs, and write conclusions.
Math
Our students recently started Unit 6, which incorporates skills in the area of geometry. This week, we learned about locating and labeling ordered pairs on a coordinate plane and investigated patterns within a number series. Although our target only requires students to utilize the first quadrant, students were exposed the others and explored the use of negative coordinates as well. Within the coming weeks, our students will start to explore the hierarchy of polygons, which include triangles and quadrilaterals. We will work classifying shapes based on attributes using academic language related to angles and length of sides.
In number corner our "collection" this month involves pencils! On Tuesday, each student was given a brand new pencil to label and measure to the nearest eighth of an inch. Each week, we will measure our pencils and record the class data on a line plot graph.
Social Studies
We started our final unit of study in Social Studies- Citizens' Rights & Responsibilities. Our students are learning about the different branches of government, as well as the system of checks and balances that are in place to prevent one branch from having more power than another. In the coming weeks, our students will explore how our country’s founders established a system of federalism within the United States.
Upcoming Events
- Monday, March 11--Band Concert at Twin Groves (7:00 pm)
- Wednesday, March 13--5th Grade Candor Health presentation in a.m.
- Tuesday, March 19th - No School (Teacher Institute Day
- Wednesday, March 20--PTO Special Lunch
Thursday, March 21st - Family Educator Conferences (5:00 - 8:30pm)
Friday, March 22nd - NO SCHOOL: Family Educator Conferences (10:00 AM-1:30 PM)
Friday, March 25th - SPRING BREAK BEGINS
Monday, April 1st - SCHOOL RESUMES
Friendly Reminders
Please remind your student to charge his/her iPad and Logitech Crayon every night
Please remember to send your student with a healthy snack - nothing feeds the brain like a healthy snack!
Please continue to have your student practice their multiplication facts up to 12
Band and orchestra students should remember to be prepared with their instruments and music books on the days of lessons.
