Weekly Update

Announcements:

• Literacy Letter: Due Monday, February 9th
• Field Trip to the Hyundai Factory Tuesday, February 10th. Thank you Simone, Niccolo’s mom, and Soni, Kaavin’s mom, for helping chaperone this trip. Please note we will be leaving the school promptly at 8:30 due to the long distance to the factory and will return around 3:00-3:15. A reminder for all students and chaperones that everyone must be wearing close-toed shoes (sneakers, tennis shoes) to visit the factory.
• Visiting author Lauren Stringer will be at AISC February 9th-13th. We will have time with the author Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon.
• Mid-Unit Math Assessment—will continue throughout the week
• Valentine's Day:  Compliment Cards.  I have a tradition in my class where each student makes a Compliment Card for every other student in the class.  Students will be given clear directions and cards will be sent home to be completed by Friday.  We do not have a "party" but more of a celebration of each other.  If you'd like to send treats for Friday, feel free but it will be a small affair.

Here is what we are doing this week:

Poetry:

We continue to study and write poetry this week.  We will be modelling our poetry lessons and objectives after what we learn from Lauren Stringer throughout the week. We have two 45 minute lessons with Lauren Stringer this week. Students have created Basho poems to bring and share with her and we are eager to hear her ideas on what to do next!

Book Clubs:  

Book Club books are finished and we will be working on writing a Literary Essay exploring the characters, themes, and big ideas we have discovered. We will start the essay on Monday and it will be due at the end of the week.

Math:  Fractions and Decimals

The math test scheduled last week has been delayed to this week due to student request for a couple more days to practice. We will be staggering the test over the week.

Students continue to explore fractions and will connecting their fraction knowledge with decimals. Our objectives, this week, are to:

• Add two fractions with respective denominators 10 and 100
• Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. For example, rewrite 0.62 as 62/100
• Compare two decimals to hundredths with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions

Science:  Solar Energy

On Friday, students used their data on earth materials and color in relation to heating and cooling to start designing a home. We will be performing some experiments this week to test our theories about how the sun can help keep houses warm or cool depending on environmental needs.