Hunka Hunka Burnin' Earth

Expedition

We kicked off expedition this week with "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Earth" (the name of our first case study).  We started with a gallery walk.  This is where students take time to examine a wide variety of photos and other documents displayed around the room, recording their thoughts and questions as they do. This case study is part of our earth science expedition titled "Let's Get Down to Earth."

The Big Ideas of "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Earth" are:

1) The Earth's surface constantly changes through a variety of processes and forces

2) The constant changes to the Earth's surface have both dangers and benefits for humans.

Math

We are working in unit 1, which reviews basic whole number concepts and operations.  So far, we've looked at factors, products, prime and composite numbers, and divisibility.  Ask your child what the word "divisibility" means.

Just a reminder that your child should have given you the "Family Letter" for unit 1.

Reading

In reader's workshop, we've been reviewing basic comprehension skills.  The last three days, we've been discussing and practicing our ability to monitor what goes on inside our heads as we try to get meaning from the text we're reading.

One of our acronyms is WITM--a question we should be asking ourselves continually as we read:
What Is The Message of the text?

Writing

In writer's workshop, we've begun our look at memoirs. We're examining examples of this kind of writing to identify characteristics we want to put into our own memoirs.  These examples are called "mentor texts."  In independent writing time, students have been listing several memories they think would be good material for interesting and engaging memoirs.

Word Study

Students have been placed into groups based on their spelling developmental level.  One group will focus on patterns within words (like vowel blends), one group will work with words based on patterns of syllables and affixes, and one group will work with longer words that don't easily fit into patterns. In addition to the groups' specialized words, each week the class will have five words in common.  These words are part of a list of words that, when mastered, give students a handle on the majority of all English prefixes and suffixes.