Dear Families,
Happy Friday. Here's a quick overview of what we've been up to this week. But first...a reminder that report cards will come home with your child on Wednesday 11/23. Also, in your child's Friday Folder today are a number of graded assignments I'd been holding on to for report cards.
Math
- Finished Unit 4 and took the test
- We've now moved in to Unit 5, focused on big numbers, estimation and computation. Today we learned about extended multiplication facts, which help us solve problems like 40*80=? Ask your student how.
- Bonus--have your student write "pH test" on a note and give to me by Monday for 10 Grizzly Bucks. It's easy.
Science
- We ventured further in to EiE, doing some real environmental engineering
- We read "Tehya's Story," which set the stage for our work. Ask your student about the story
- Today we simulated working as environmental engineers hired by a fictitious town of Greenville, which has been experiencing pollution problems. Each small group of students performed pH tests on various water samples taken from around the town. We'll do more with this next week.
Reading
- Focused on high interest non-fiction articles in Time for Kids, and took a quiz
- Learned about and examined figurative language
- Took a mock MSP reading test, which I can show you at parent conferences
Writing
- Worked more on the components of effective leads
- Looked at adding scenes that are flashbacks of the past or flash-forwards of the future
- Examined mentor texts for how to bring more of the internal (thoughts, feelings, questions in our head) part of the story to our pieces
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| Examining the pH strips during EiE (Engineering is Elementary: A Slick Solution) |
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| Taking a sample |
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| Matching up against the pH chart. This sample from the Greenville car factory is somewhat acidic. We may have some pollution! |
