Friday, February 28th

We started ELA with correcting our daily work.  Next we discussed the 5th grade writing test and students were able to practice creating an outline for a randomly selected prompt.  The morning class continued with their WWII notes, and both classes took a formative Edmodo quiz on African Americans and women in WWII.

At the end of the day I played my Pearl Harbor video.  Some students had already seen it; however, the morning class was only able to see half of it.  Next week, we will continue our studies of WWII.

Tuesday, February 25th

During the morning class, since today is their short day, we focused on finishing Gathering Blue.  They voted to read during lunch in the classroom and at the end of the day.  Unfortunately, we didn't finish; however, we only have about ten pages left.  I will finish the book with them first thing in the morning before I go to UOI planning.

The afternoon class also read from Gathering Blue; however, since they were further behind the morning class we still have another day or two before we finish the book.  We  finished the WWII Causes BrainPop video and students continued adding to their vocabulary notes.  As some already know, I used to live in Hawaii, and I have also been to the Pearl Harbor Memorial several times.  The last time I was there I purchased the national park service video along with a few other primary source documents.  We watched that video in class so students could understand the historical details of what happened on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.  

On Thursday I'll get each class caught up with the other and we'll also review the inquiry results.  

This is what I expect for students to COMPLETE on Wednesday, February 26th while I'm at UOI training: 

Monday, January 24th

During ELA we resumed our daily grammar review and we continued reading/analyzing Gathering Blue.  We also began working on learning the WWII vocabulary.  We will continue learning our WWII basics this week and begin reviewing for next week's writing test.

We started a Venn diagram about Jonas and Kira, the main characters of The Giver and Gathering Blue, respectively.  Towards the end of this term, and overlapping into the first part of term 6, students will have a comprehensive project that unifies their year-long analysis of all three books.  We should begin The Messenger, the last book we'll read together, by the end of this week.  For your reference, I will read Son, the final book in this quartet series, to the students during term 6.

The WWII vocabulary is taken from the 5th grade standards.  We will cover the basics this week before delving more deeply into the content.  

and here's Tiger and my porch squirrel….

Winter Break Update

I hope everyone is having a great winter break.  I extended the project deadline and students who don't have any peer reviews can get one from a parent or other trustworthy person.  The reviewer should answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper:
1.  What are three good things within the paper?
2.  What are three things the author should review and/or change?
The reviewer can also circle any misspelled words and identify other grammatical errors that need to be corrected.

Also, students who hadn't completed their three reading responses for term 4 were told to finish those over the break.  Those students should have their reading folders with them since I passed them out to students at the end of the day last Friday.  

During term 5 we are going to start our study of WWII, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement. With parent supervision, students who are interested in previewing these topics can click on the links below.  

BrainPop WWII

BrainPop Anne Frank

Benito Mussolini

Joseph Stalin 

Military Integration

WWII political leaders (photo gallery)

BBC WWII info for kids

Cold War Links

Jim Crow personal histories

Civil Rights Movement Links/Videos

Term 4 Unit of Inquiry Update

This term our Unit of Inquiry is titled:  How we Express Ourselves and our Central Idea is: Various modes of communication can be used to interpret meaning in different situations.  In addition to working in their Specials classes (Spanish, P.E., and Music) on the UOI, students have been examining the Social Studies content through all of this term's three focus lenses: form, reflection, perspective and connection.

Within ELA, students used evidence to support their written opinions and continued to reflect through our discussions of Gathering Blue.  In our efforts to do close reads and truly understand texts, we have uncovered multiple meanings, understood character motivations, and thoughtfully examined the way dialects enhance dialogue. 

Please see below for evidence of some of our work.  I strongly encourage that students and parents continue to have conversations at home about what we learned in class and how those understandings apply to our everyday lives and to the larger world.

Reflection -- "There be no beasts."

The character Anabella, a woman with "four-syllable" wisdom, tells Kira that "there be no beasts." Students discussed and analyzed if that was literal or if it meant something more than that.  

Form -- Structure within poetry, books, and plays

Students learned about the different forms of poetry, plays, and books.  They then had a scavenger hunt (using items in the room and online sources) to find poems, books, and plays that met certain formats.

Perspective -- How is information presented in various forms?
Students analyzed Great Depression era photographs and propaganda to identify the cause and effect displayed in each primary document.

Friday, February 14th

If school is delayed 2 hours tomorrow, the morning class will have a short review of the Great Depression/New Deal Assessment right before taking the test.  Any remaining time can be used for working on projects.  The afternoon class will have their weekly library time and the same review before the assessment.  The final due date for the project will be on Monday, February 24th.  Students will be expected to take home any materials they need to complete their projects over the break.  I will also give the vocabulary assessment the Monday after winter break.

If school is cancelled tomorrow, I will give the social studies and vocabulary assessments on Monday (I'll still do the review).  Students will have the remaining class time to work on their projects and the due date will be Tuesday, February 25th.  Students who have completed all parts of their project will have a World War II inquiry to complete.

The literary assessment will be rescheduled for later during the first week of term 5.  Please contact me via text or email if you have any questions.

Tuesday, February 11th

Here's the modified assessment schedule for this week:

Wednesday - grammar quiz (we will do this on Thursday if school is cancelled on Wednesday as well)
Thursday - Great Depression/New Deal Assessment
Friday - new NEW project deadline, Vocabulary Assessment, The Giver/Gathering Blue Open Book Literary Quiz

Study Resources

For the social studies assessment, review the slides, know the answers to the following questions, and click on the attached links:

What did many Americans experience during the Great Depression?

What were the different goals of the first and second New Deal?

How did the Great Depression affect farmers?

What were some of Eleanor Roosevelt's goals and accomplishments? 

Great Depression BrainPop Video

(read the articles in the FYI section too)

Describe what is happening in the picture and explain why it is occurring. 

 

Study these slides for the grammar quiz.  The grammar quiz will have 10 questions.

Vocabulary
-less quizlet

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is next Friday and I sent home a list of both homerooms.  In the past, given my middle school background, I have overlooked Valentine's day completely.  However this year, I am going to provide brown paper bags and decorating materials (sharpies and stickers) for students to exchange Valentines.  

The rules for participation are as follows:

1.  Participation is OPTIONAL.  You don't HAVE to buy valentines for anyone. 

2.  If students participate, they must get valentines for all of the students in their homeroom.  

3.  Giving valentines to individual friends in the other homeroom is optional. So if students want to give valentines to just a few friends in the other homeroom, that's fine.  I don't want parents to feel, or be told, that they have to buy 52 valentines.

4.  I tried to write down all of the nicknames on the name sheet; however, students pointed out that there were a few I overlooked.  That being said, students should know each other by now.  : )

Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Thursday & Friday

On Thursday and Friday we read more in Gathering Blue and then students worked on their projects.  I also had a discussion-based lesson on the Great Depression and the New Deal.  A few of the slides are shown below.  

Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to show the following video that was embedded in my Great Depression/New Deal powerpoint.  Please feel free to watch the video at home.

Franklin Roosevelt Bio & Video

In math students began taking their term 4 assessment.  During science students are learning about how different elements and compounds combine together.  

Do you recognize this City of Decatur New Deal building addition?

Mid-Week Update

This week we are focused on finishing projects, reading/analyzing Gathering Blue, assessing the 1920s American history, practicing proper comma usage, and learning about the Great Depression.

Today some students will be bringing home a project check-in sheet.  I've extended the deadline for the project due date; however, some students are still not on track to finish on time.  Those students need to use the remaining class time this week and work on their projects at home if they are going to finish on time.  If your child brings home a note, please sign and return it tomorrow.