We are well into our daily current events and so far the students have really done a great job. Please remember that this replaces the nightly homework, does not add on to it. Next weeks students are as follows;
Tuesday - Akari
Wednesday - Maxim
Thursday - Harry
Friday - Jovan
Wednesday - Maxim
Thursday - Harry
Friday - Jovan
Each night before they have their events due, I will place their CE booklet in their outbox to be taken home. It needs to be completed and returned the next day. Please feel free to give them all the help they need. Current events are to show how there is an impact to the community, world or people since this is a lead in to our IMPACT unit later in the year.
We will complete our unit on Division next week with the final assessment later in the week. The unit has focused on division by single digits, division by two digits, division of decimal numbers and division by decimal numbers. The latter of these four is still very nebulous for many students as they still do not really see why the answers work the way they do. We have also completed two exemplars on geometric spaces and area that the students did quite well in overall. Our next exemplars involve time and distance.
This week students chose who they will research for their biography project. The research will take the following forms. For 6 days students will research their topic with books, reference materials from the library and online databases. Next week's homework will entirely be devoted to research on the internet with a minimum of two websites. I have told students that they cannot use WIKIPEDIA other than for gathering general data since this website can be changed by anyone out there. All information on the web needs to be referenced twice, hence the minimum of two websites, so that accuracy can be assured. Students have a research booklet that they will take home and back to complete all the research on their topic. The research is due next Friday.
It is also time for students to start thinking about what they want to do for their final Prove It! project. This project needs to be focused on the changes of a single variable at a time and must show the learning we have done in the unit. I will be explaining how the process will work during our Inquiry time next week. The grade level has determined out science fair date and time so mark it on your calendars - Dec 15th from 11:15-12:15 in the morning. It is always a great way to see all the really neat projects the students prepared. This will be a whole grade event.
In reading we have completed out third of four Literature Circles. These are really short books so that students can get use to reading and discussing the books. There have been a couple of lessons on reading discussions and a few more still to come. We will do our fourth book next week. Students are completing a Think Mark for each book they read in which they look at FAT questions, changes to the character and setting. We are also well into our novel study of Sign of the Beaver.
Thats about all for this week. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me and I will set up a time to meet with you.
Harold Daw
