Classroom Update - Week of December 11th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• Reading Mid-Year Benchmark will be on Monday, December 18th

• Math Mid-Year Benchmark will be on Tuesday, December 19th

• December 21st is not only an Early Release Day (school will dismiss at 1:15) but also our last day of the quarter.

• Monday, January 22nd is Track In Day.

• Thursday, January 25th from 6:00-7:30PM is MES International Festival. Please click HERE to sign up if you want to present or help in any area during this night.

• On Friday, January 26th 2nd quarter report cards will go home.

Reader's Workshop:

This week, the students will work on integrating information between two different sources on the same topic. They will be working on answering questions in their own words while combining the two sources. They will also be expected to use the Fab Five when formulating their responses. This is also what they have been working on for their research reports. The students will take a reading assessment on this skill this Friday, December 15th.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• Tell me more about the Fab Five.

Writer's Workshop:

This week in writing, the students will continue working on their second research report. The students will be working on writing their three body paragraphs first and then tackling their introductions and conclusions. Each paragraph should include the Fab Five, which is listed below.

Fab Five for Nonfiction Paragraphs:

1. Clear Topic Sentence

2. 3-5 Elaborated Details of Support

3. Variety of Transition Words

4. Content Specific Vocabulary

5. Clear Concluding Sentence

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• Where are you in the research process?

• Tell me about some of the ways that your famous individual has shown a growth mindset?

Math:

This week in math the students will work on recognizing lines of symmetry in both regular and irregular shapes. They will learn how shapes have vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines of symmetry and how some figures can have no lines of symmetry (asymmetrical), while other can have many lines of symmetry. The students will also investigate 2-dimensional figures and categorize them based on their attributes. There will be a strong focus on the classifying them based on their lines, sides, and angles. The students will also learn about the two different ways that we can classify triangles. The first way is by their sides: equilateral triangles (equal sides), isosceles triangles (2 equal sides), and scalene triangles (no equal sides) and angles: acute triangles (all angles are less than 90 degrees) right (one angle is 90 degrees) or obtuse (one angle is greater than 90 degrees). The students will take their final math assessment next Wednesday.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• Show me how many lines of symmetry are in a square? Rectangle? Trapezoid

• What are some ways that we can classify shapes?

• Show me an example of an obtuse scalene triangle? Or an acute isosceles triangle.

Science:

In science this week, students are learning about fossils and how they reveal changes in the earth. The unit test will be Friday, 12/15. Help your child review the science notes each night. Some questions to ask are:

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What is the difference between weathering, erosion, and deposition?

• What are some examples of weathering, erosion, and deposition?

• How does a river form and change the land?

• What are some key terms to understanding how a river changes the land?

• What do fossils reveal about the earth? (Students will take these notes Tuesday and Wednesday.)