Emilie helped protect Ms. Jill by providing a label for hug safety. Everyone was very happy to have her back in class!

History & Geography

Goodness gracious!  It is so wonderful to be back in the classroom with these awesome students!  Their cards and well-wishes filled my home with happiness.  So sweet.  The care and support from all the SWS students and families was so heartwarming and appreciated.  While it was hard to be laid up for so many weeks, there was a bit of a silver lining in that it forced me to have a more simple, quiet Christmas which was really nice.  I hope you all enjoyed your break!

Our weekly objectives were to:

• Recognize the importance of the kingdoms of Kush and Aksum.
• Understand the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Kush and Aksum.
• Describe how and by whom trans-Sahara trade was conducted.
• Understand the importance of trans-Sahara trade.
• Describe the empire of Ghana at the height of its power.
• Understand how Ghana became powerful and wealthy and why it declined.
• Describe the origin and flowering of the kingdom of Mali.
• Understand the importance of Sundiata, Islam, and Timbuktu to the history of Mali.

Mathematics w/Laura

La lectura

We played a game where, after students wrote about their vacation on a notecard, their classmates had to guess who wrote each one.  This was a fun way to practice our writing and  listening skills after a long break.

Our story this week was realistic fiction, El negocio va viento en popa.  This is a lighthearted and amusing story about two young people who develop a creative and unusual business idea – greeting cards for stepfamilies. Students listened to the story and used a 3-2-1 strategy to stay on task. They wrote 3 important details, 2 interesting things, and 1 question.

Our word analysis this week focused on open syllable words and words stressed on the last syllable (agudas).

Our grammar focus this week was on the preterite tense (one of the two past tenses).  Students will use their new booklets to help them edit their class writing. We also used our grammar focus to create our new spelling list for next week.

Ciencias

We jumped right back into our science investigations this week.  We continued our “Mapping the Earth’s Surface” investigation.  The final part of this investigation was a study of the rapid changes. Students think about processes that cause rapid changes to Earth’s surface: landslides, earthquakes, floods, and volcanoes.

Our focus question for this investigation was: What events can change the Earth’s surface quickly. We observed numerous pictures and read about how catastrophic events have the potential to change the Earth’s surface quickly.  We also learned that scientists and engineers can do things to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

We had a great time working with our groups to plan and then decorate (and finally EAT) a cake to represent each of the four rapid changes that occur to the earth’s surface. Students quickly created a ‘breaking news’ to share their model.

Landslide: Deslizamiento de tierra

Volcano: El volcan

Earthquake: Un terremoto

Flood: Inundación

Specialists:

Music with Ms. Erin