Here is the newsletter to recap last week and let you know what is coming up in the next two weeks. Alaina and I have included our plans for the week following Thanksgiving break as well, in lieu of another separate newsletter at the end of our two day week next week. Please let me know about any concerns, and in case I don't have a chance to say it before Wednesday, enjoy the break!
Announcements
- Reminder - Thanksgiving Break is next week. There will be no school Wednesday - Friday
- There will only be math homework on Monday next week. There will be no spelling homework next week.
- We will be watching The Lorax. This is an introduction to an upcoming unit where we will speak for all sorts of natural ‘beings’. The trailer for this film can be found here. Please email us before Tuesday morning if your student needs to be excluded from this.
Project
This week in Project, we continued to work on our Dream Farms, finding our profits, purchasing supplies, and arguing for why our farms were the most sustainable in our communities. At the Town Hall Meeting on Friday, we voted on which farms were the most sustainable communities and those Farms got cash prizes. We also spent a couple days compiling and summarizing our inquiry research data we collected in the garden in a presentation on Google Slides. We will use these presentations to share our findings in the Sustainability Symposium next week.
Ask your student what they found in their garden research and how it applies to the bigger (maybe even global) picture. If you have a computer at home, they can even show you their presentation on Google Slides!
Next week in Project, we will print the slides we made, attach them to trifold presentation boards, and present our findings in Sustainability Symposiums to our classmates and members of the other level three class. Keep an eye out for photos of this event.
After Thanksgiving Break, we will move into a cross-curricular exploration of the perspectives of natural beings in our Council of All Beings unit. We will research a being (which can be anything from a stone to a blue whale), and present information that advocates for that being’s needs from humans and other beings in the world.
Literacy
This week in reading, we continued to grow as analytical readers. Students created new pages in their reading notebook to start thinking about selecting meaningful quotes from their Good Fit books. We engaged in a book ‘tasting,’ in which we sampled several books from the Nature Adventure genre and thought about which one we would prefer to read for our next book club based on interest level and level of challenge. We continued our read aloud of Pax by Sara Pennypacker, and made predictions about what the rising action would lead to and how the book would resolve. Several students reminded us that there is a sequel to Pax, and that some things might be left unresolved... We are hoping that is not the case. Finally, in writing this week, we did some brainstorming on new ways to engage in writing that inspires us (like letters to celebrities, video-game guides, and digital original books), took a break from our journals to complete geek out presentations, and engaged in creating spelling lists and flashcards.
Ask your student what they think is going to happen next in Pax. You might also ask them what they chose to do for free-write Friday.
Next week we will engage in setting reading goals, and make plans for achieving these goals. We will use our writing time on Monday to practice presentations, the final presentation of which will unfortunately take up most of our writing time on Tuesday.
After Thanksgiving Break, we will begin our Nature Adventure book clubs, in which we will continue to write about our reading, and engage in the steps necessary to attain our reading goals. We will also begin our work on the essay portion of our Council of All Beings unit. This will involve some initial research into our being, and some practice and exploration of what it means to write for the purpose of argument and persuasion.
5th Grade Math
Last week in 5th grade math we focused on learning some new strategies for multi digit multiplication problems and tried out applying these. 5th graders practiced rounding and breaking numbers down into “friendlier” numbers and applied this to larger multiplication problems. Also, throughout the year, we have been focusing on working on multi step story problems through the process of reading the problem carefully, drawing it out and solving, then writing a concise answer that responds to the question that was asked.
Ask your 5th grader to show you their favorite strategy for tricky multiplication problems.
Next week, we will be continuing to practice these multiplication strategies. After break, we will continue to develop these strategies and relate them to the standard algorithm for multiplication. After this, we will repeat a similar process for division.
6th Grade Math
This week in 6th grade math, we used our understanding of unit rates to explore a new way of answering rate-based questions. We set up “word fractions” with our unit rates, and when multiplying the unit rate by a unit, learned that we could eliminate pairs of units to make sure that we have the correct unit in our answer. If this all sounds confusing, rest easy. It was confusing to your students as well, at first. The homework helpers that they bring home with their homework do a great job of explaining these concepts, and offer visualizations as well. We also tried something new in terms of groupings in 6th grade math. One group used the computers to complete classwork on an independent level, following along with videos from the great minds website, another group worked with me to complete the classwork, and a third worked with Brandon to complete the classwork. This allowed for the small-group students to ask more questions and more opportunities to give answers to their groups.
Next week, We will use our 1 day of math work to apply unit rates to prices in measurement conversions. Sixth graders will have one day of math homework, and we'll spend one day catching up on missed work.
After Thanksgiving Break, We will wrap up module 1, complete an end of module assessment, and then begin module 2 which addresses arithmetic operations and reviews division of fractions. We will also continue to choose which group works best for us in math, within reason. I will have group-choice veto power for students who are not able to complete work in their chosen group. So far, students have been very honest about their needs and best work practices; I am optimistic about 6th grade group choices.
S.E.L.
This week in social emotional learning, we practiced our responses to each other in three different scenarios: when a peer says something mean to us or someone else, when a peer tells us that something we said sounded mean, and when we hear someone use a microaggression either toward us or towards someone else. I was very impressed with the emotional and social maturity of our class during this activity. Our responses to these scenarios were both kind and assertive. Many students included listening and considering the other person’s words when given the scenario that their own words sounded mean.