Week 31

Project Based Learning- Science

We completed our unit on forces and motion this week. The students were challenged to create a presentation that taught one of the following concepts: Gravity, friction, pushes, pulls, forces, or motion. The students created hilarious skits, raps, and posters to teach the rest of the class their topic. The students wrapped up the week by completing a force and motion packet so that I could check that they had mastered this unit. Our next unit will cover making observations and studying rocks and minerals. 

       

Reading

This school year we have read many different genres of text, like fiction, nonfiction, biography, recipes, and magazine articles. In the upcoming weeks, the students are going to take a closer look at these genres and decide which reading strategies and skills work best for each one. For example, when you read a fictional story it is important to understand the characters, setting, and plot of a story, but when you read nonfiction it is important to learn the key vocabulary terms the author uses. 

Spelling

This week the students studied words that ended with nd, nk, and ng. Next week, the students will learn how to spell multi-syllabic words that contain the short and long “a” sounds, like in the words attach, grabbed, and railroad.

Writing

The students have written their introductions, informational paragraphs, and conclusions for their life cycle research reports. We have learned a lot about butterflies, ants, chickens, flowers, and frogs!

Math

This week the class began reviewing the math skills we have worked on throughout the year. We have worked on multi-step word problems, area and perimeter, identifying 2D and 3D shapes, adding and subtracting two and three digit numbers, multiplying and dividing, and working with money, clocks, and calendars. Next week, we will continue unit 10 on adding with decimal points and completing equations containing parentheses, for example 4 + (2 x 8) = 20.