Language Arts and Science
In Literacy this week, we spent our time reviewing concepts we have been seeing during the last couple weeks, as well taking a few assessments, our spelling quiz on Thursday and a multiple choice reading assessment of the book Adaptaciones on Friday.
As we prepare to close this term, many of our projects are coming to an end. We have finished our first book Practica de destrezas. This is the book our class uses to do all of our Spanish grammar and word work. Our Humphrey book club is another project we will be finishing next week. By this weekend, students should have the entire book read and all their reading logs complete. They will be taking a writing assessment based on the book on Tuesday. Please make sure your child comes to school prepared.
We had another big science week! Our class continued with our investigation 3: Water Tolerance, where students isolated one factor, water, in the environment of plants, and set up and experiment to determine the range of water tolerance for the early growth of four different plants, describe the optimum water conditions for early growth of seed and analyze data from plant experiments. The big hit this week, however, was the introduction of Investigation 4: Aquatic Environments. We compared and contrasted the characteristics of a terrestrial and aquatic environments. We identified different aquatic environments and determined the living and non-living factors we find there. Water and temperature, for example, are two non-living factors. Later in the week, we focused particularly on fresh water environments. Our class assembled a fresh water aquariums and welcomed some cool friends, our little goldfish. We introduced key vocabulary such as, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Next week we will learn about the effect that carbon dioxide produces in the water. Stay tuned!
Algebra is fun!
Math
We learned a few more complicated steps in algebra this week, and everyone did very well at mastering the new concepts! One thing that was tricky for some was following the steps taught even if the correct answer could be visualized. It was discussed that without the proper methods, it won’t be quite as easy to visualize answers once our algebra gets more and more difficult. So it is very important to master the steps now when algebraic equations are easier!
At the end of this week students are able to:
-Write and evaluate inequalities
-determine the difference between algebraic inequalities and equations
-solve for simple algebraic equations with variables and inequalities
-find the value of variables in simple algebraic equations
History & Geography
We got a little bit further in our study of the Westward expansion and also heard from a remaining few Feudal Japan presentations this week.
At the end of this week students are able to:
- gain a deeper understanding about pioneers, land routes (Santa Fe and Oregon Trails) and the Gold Rush
- point out geographical areas of importance such as the Erie Canal, Appalachian and Rocky mountains, various rivers, the Great Plains and the Continental Divide
- Explain about the Indian resistance
- Understand the meaning of ‘Manifest Destiny’
Art
The 4th and 5th graders finished their Origami Radial Symmetry designs this week in art. They look like beautiful 3dimensional quilt patterns! These are displayed on the wall next to their Feudal Japan bulletin board.
Music
This week we followed the daily Google doodle to discover the heritage of Lithuanian-born Clara Rockwell, an early player of the first electronic musical instrument, the theramin. The doodle offered a quick theramin lesson, and gave the students a chance to try their own melodies.