Here is an update of what we will be covering in my classes during the coming weeks.
Math: Students will be continuing their work on multiplication and division strategies. This week, they will become “experts” on a specific strategy, and create a lesson in a small group, to show their mastery. We will wrap up the week with presentations as a final review. Our next assessment will take place during the first full week of October.
Language arts– Students will be wrapping up their literature circle books by Wednesday. As an extension of understanding characterization, students will be creating a sort of “artifact bag” similar to ones they made at the start of the year, about themselves. The difference this time being that the bag will be from the perspective of a character from their literature circle book. After having class time to brainstorm with their groups, independently created artifact bags will likely be due October 5th or 6th.
In word study, we are continuing our weekly spelling sorts and listening to Wonder, read aloud by Mrs. Neil. Students will be continuing to work on writing; this week we are incorporating e-mail etiquette in response to prompts. We are also hoping to start independent reading response journals soon, and are looking for parents interested in volunteering for “cafe chats”, a time to meet with students and discuss the books they are reading on their own. Lastly, I will be leading the class in an conversation about “word consciousness”, and how thinking about words is essential to deeply understanding their meaning.
Social Studies– Students will be wrapping up artifact reconstruction on Monday and Tuesday. From there, they will create a collaborative slideshow presentation. This is how they will demonstrate their understanding of the cultural universals we have been learning about in this unit, as a final assessment. The first week of October we will be getting into our unit on early man, called Bones and Stones.