Weekly Update

Language Arts

Elaborative Detail is what brings life to the narrative.  It allows the reader to experience the story world through the five senses of the main character and add richness and substance to the writing. In every story there are certain people, places, and things that are especially important.  These are called the story critical character, settings and objects.  Authors highlight these elements by stopping and taking time to describe them.

This week I used "Where the Wild Things Are" as a mentor text to elaborate on a story critical character - The Wild Thing.  The students used a menu of detail generating questions and sentences starters to elaborate on the main character.  Their vivid word choice and use of sensory imagery allowed the students to bring their characters to life.

Math

During math workshop we continued to work on multi-digit addition.  The strategy that we focused on was the traditional algorithm or "stack it" method.  The students used the stratedice to play "slam dunk" to reinforce the regrouping concept.   

The mental math strategy that we focused on this week was Minus 10, Minus 20.  When you subtract 10, the tens-place digit decreases by one.  When you subtract 20, the tens-place digit decreases by two.  This strategy leads to the ability to subtract 100 and 200 in your head.

Science

This week we began our Survivor Building Challenge as part of our "Testing Materials" and "Building with a Variety of Materials" units in science.  Our class has been stranded on a deserted island.  They will participate in a variety of building challenges while trying to "survive" on the island.  The students have been placed in tribes and will work together through the various challenges.  

STRUCTURE

WATER WAVES

ISLAND WOLVES

Social Studies

We continued to work on our lapbooks this week during social studies.  The students were introduced to the Tunisian culture.  They enjoyed comparing and contrasting the Tunisian culture to ours.

Rainbow Day

Congratulations to Mr. E for being our VIP this week.  We really enjoyed getting to know you even better!

Great job to our Mr. E #2 for receiving the Student of the Week award during Friday's assembly!