We had a blast at our Halloween parties! 🙂

Reading: Theme 5- Monitor Understanding
Writing: Poem
Grammar: Commas in a series/combining sentences
Math: Multiplication/Division
Science: Electricity

Reading closely is all about understanding the text. To make sure we are understanding the text, we have been working on finding support in the text to prove our answers are correct!

During this close reading activity, we challenged your student to think outside the box. The students were asked to find three details to support the central message of a folktale. The challenging part??? They couldn’t write anything! They had to be a problem solver to figure out another way to show their support! We had a lot of great ideas. Some students cut out the details, some used rubber bands, some used pencils to mark the spots, and others used flashcards! Activities like this will give your student the confidence to solve problems on the PARCC assessment that will be administered later this year. This assessment is taken on the computer, and answering the questions isn’t always as simple as clicking on the right answer.

After we found the support, the students were able to discuss why they chose the details that they did and how their details supported the central message!

We started out by exploring the key vocabulary words that are involved in creating an electric circuit! We worked together with our groups to correctly match the 6 words (battery, receiver, source, filament, circuit, and components).

After we correctly matched all the words, the students were able to explore! The students created various circuits using a battery, a light bulb, and two wires. Their job was assemble various circuits and determine the characteristics of a working circuit.

Reading: Close Reading! Finding evidence to support a central message. 🙂
Grammar: Quotation Marks
Writing: Magnet Report
Math: Chapter 4 Review/Test and Word Problem Review
Science: Magnets Review and Electricity Introduction

Theme 4: How Does Electricity Work?

We put our knowledge about magnets to work when we completed this activity. In “breaking the force” we had to see how many washers it took to break the force between two magnets. We got to see how this number changed as we placed plastic chips between the magnets!

We then built up our background knowledge by watching The Magic School Bus Gets Charged! This video helped teach us how electricity flows in a circuit!

Finally, it was time to explore and put our new knowledge to the test! The students worked together to build an electromagnet. The students had to work together to create an electrical circuit that turned the rivet into a magnet! 🙂

Reading: Theme 4- Synthesizing/ Review: Inferring
Grammar: Types of sentences, abbreviations, initials, and end marks
Writing: Magnet Report
Math: Chapter 4: Subtraction up to 10,000
Science: Magnets and Electricity

Students were able to enjoy 6 different story tellers while at the Chinquapin Festival! From wooden spoons to owl calls, students experienced many talented artists and even learned some new talents themselves. We are looking forward to using our new story telling skills to improve our writing and can’t wait to get creating ourselves.

We just finished up our first social studies unit, and we have moved onto Magnets and Electricity. The students began this unit by determining the types of objects magnets are attracted to!