I hope you all survived the crazy blizzard this week!
We had a short week of school, but the students did put in their best effort and produced high quality work.
Reading
In Reading, we continued preparing for the MCAS. This week, the students worked in small groups to read a number of short passages and answered comprehension questions that related to the text. Before the students were sent off to read, we went over several vocabulary words as a class and reviewed different parts of speech. (This week, the students reviewed proper nouns, verbs, compound words, and contractions.) We also reviewed what synonyms and antonyms are and the students had to work, as a class, to help sort word pairs into these categories.
Math
In Math, we started discussing the idea of "equivalent fractions". We have been using lots of visuals, charts, and drawings to demonstrate this concept. The students even participated in making their own Fraction Pizzas where they practiced writing equivalent fractions based on the toppings on their pizzas. The students also had an opportunity to work "hands on" with equivalent fractions, working with fraction blocks and strips. Many fraction games were also available for the students to use during Math Workshop.
Science
In Science this week, the students worked in small groups, exploring wheels, axles, and ramps. Their task was to experiment with different materials to learn what affects a change of motion in regard to the wheels. The students created a number of different systems using an axle and different sized wheels and recorded what they noticed about the direction in which their system moved down the ramp. Many students made comments about how their system curved when they used one large wheel on one end of an axle and one smaller wheel on the other end. Some groups even combined their materials with another group and worked together to form a larger system, some comparing their model to that of a car.
Writing
In Writing, the students have been responding to short answer questions and open response questions about their passages from Reading. The students spent time pulling details out from their text and also practiced citing specific lines from their text as evidence to help support their claims, a critical skill.
Best,
Miss Weinstein
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