Independent or Dependent?

In an effort to increase the fluency of our writing, our team learned more about the structure of compound and complex sentences. We learned that compound sentences contain two independent clauses (sentences that can stand alone), while complex sentences contain an independent clause coupled with a dependent(subordinate) clause. We plan on using more of these sentences in our writing this year, beginning with our "It Happened to Me" story.

Our "It Happened to Me" stories began to take shape in Writing today. Everyone seems excited to tell their tales about an event they'll never forget. Since we are still focusing on the Ideas Trait of Writing, we are working hard to include rich details. These stories are sure to be entertaining!


Everyone is enjoying the story Bud, Not Buddy! We are finding him to be a very brave young man, setting out on a journey to find his father with nothing but the clothes on his back and his suitcase filled with his most treasured belongings. Team Enterprise is giving some thought to what they would take with them if they were in Bud's shoes. What do they value? What does it mean to them? These special items are to be brought to McD's Cafe this week!

We received new books today in Social Studies! We also began our exploration of Europe and Russia! Today we compared the two countries in size and population. We will be studying the geography of these countries to begin.

In Science, we took a trip to the computer lab to explore more information about the three types of rocks. The website we enjoyed was :

http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/

Through a hands-on lab tomorrow, we will discover description and properties of metamorphic rocks.

In Math, we continued to think...and think hard we did! We used different mental math strategies to compute different problems. The students were creative in the different ways that they broke down numbers to make the problem easier. We will begin to tackle more word problems tomorrow and then review for a math test on Friday. Look for a review sheet to come home to help you.

TOMORROW IS N.S.I.'s BREAST CANCER AWARENESS DAY! SHOW YOUR SUPPORT BY WEARING PINK TOMORROW TO SCHOOL!



Homework:
Language Arts - Complete grammar practice p. 15. Also, read chapters 6-10 (p. 45-95) of Bud, Not Buddy and complete your role for Friday. Bring in a treasured item for McD's Cafe Friday.
Math - page 34, 21-25