Week of Feb. 22nd - 26th

Literacy

Read Aloud
-Encounter, by Jane Yolen, Illustrated by David Shannon. This is a story of the first encounter between Spaniards and Indians told from the perspective of a Taino boy. We will focus on Author's Purpose, Point of View, and Drawing Conclusions.

Shared Reading
-Author's Note, from Encounter. Focus on identifying the main idea and supporting details.

Interactive Editing
-Author's Note, from Encounter.

Interactive Writing
-We will finish working on the funneling activity we began last week.
-We will write a story about the first encounter from a Taino's boy point of view. We will focus on integrating voice as we write.

Independent Writing
-Students will write their own story about the first encounter. They will pretend they are a Taino boy at the time Christopher Columbus landed on our lands.
-We will also begin working on the Father's Day gift! It is a surprise! It includes lots of writing the kids will be working on for several weeks!!!

Students will also participate on Independent Reading, Book Clubs, Centers, Writing Cycles, and Guided Reading Groups.

MATH
Today students had a geometry quiz on similar and congruent shapes, translations, rotations, and reflections.

Tuesday (tomorrow) will be the fraction word problem quiz. Some students were struggling with these, as word problems and fractions are two difficult concepts in which we have now combined. In preparation, we've done an interactive editing piece to remind students in the steps in solving words problems, as well as worked on fractions as bell work for the past 2 weeks. Students were given an assignment (in which most struggled) and so I have given each student a practice booklet for extra practice at home, as well as holding special "fraction club" meetings at recess to provide extra practice to those who ask for it. Students have been given back their previous assignment, and should be correcting their mistakes for homework and practice for tomorrow's quiz.

This week we then continue with Geometry - looking at lines, line segments, quadrilaterals, and line symmetry. Friday we will be reviewing these concepts, then there will be a quiz on Monday.

Timed Test: Dividing numbers by 2. Please practice these at home! I've included a website under "math links" to help as well. Here it is:
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsdiv.html


SOCIAL STUDIES
Today we started focussing on the deserts of the Southwest - specifically on the water in the desert. Tuesday and Wednesday we will be doing interactive editing on 'Water in the Desert' and 'Desert Resources'. Thursday will be review, then Friday we will be having a quiz on these 2 lessons. This will conclude our Social Studies unit of "The Southwest".