Wednesday, March 28, 2012

On the Home Stretch!


Today marks an end to the third quarter, and report cards will be distributed next Wednesday. It's hard to believe we're on the home stretch of this school year!

We enjoyed reading about Jose and Arnie in Born Worker by Gary Soto. The two boys in the story, cousins, were so different! They especially were different in their view of work. We found that the way they had been raised made all the difference. The author used the parents in the story to show this difference. Yesterday, we reflected on clues the author gave about the parents' influence and how the boys turned out. We found these contrasts and wrote about them. Today, we demonstrated our understanding of the key vocabulary words and story elements by answering comprehension questions in a quiz. We also demonstrated our mastery of assigned irregular plurals in spelling.

Now that we have our trading card templates and assigned European countries, it was time to research using Culture Grams. Many of us have found interesting facts and information about our countries to draw and write about on our trading cards.

Tomorrow, we will enjoy viewing a history of ancient civilization in song! The cast of Dig It, made up of 5th and 6th grade students from our school, will be performed at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Many classmates have worked hard, and we're looking forward to it!

Homework:
Reading - Tomorrow we will kick off our new novel in cafe!
Math - Complete front and back of practice sheet
Social Studies - Trading card design is due on April 2nd.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Designing Trading Cards!


Our new project for Europe and Russia was distributed today! We are creating trading cards depicting interesting facts and information about our assigned countries. Many instructions were given in class about how to complete the template. The projects will be copied onto card stock. The cards will be cut and distributed on trading card day. Each of us will go home with a complete set of European trading cards! We're ready to get busy with our research for this cool project!

During Language Arts, we applied the skill of comparing and contrasting to a short story. Some of us read What Mama Does and others read Daniel's Roller Coasters. Both were interesting stories! While we read, Mrs. Mac tested each of us individually for reading fluency. Letters regarding our performance will be found in our report card envelopes. It's hard to believe that the nine week period is almost over!

Homework:
Reading - Quiz Wednesday on Born Worker
Math - Game board project is due tomorrow.
Spelling - Quiz on assigned words this Wednesday
Social Studies - Chapter 1 test (Europe and Russia) tomorrow
Wellness - DARE take-home sheet and rough draft for comic strip