Whose Fault Is It?

Expedition

This week in expedition, we wrapped up the "Hunka' Hunka' Burnin' Earth" case study by building models that simulate the movement of the Earth's crust at six points along the San Andreas Fault in California.  We learned that while the two tectonic plates meeting at the fault are slowly sliding past each other, the movement isn't uniform along the entire fault. At some places the movement is less and other places more. At the places where the movement is less, it's because friction and collision slows it down. This builds up tension that eventually gets released as an earthquake.

After doing our simulation, we plotted earthquake locations at several points on a world map.  We saw how scientists use earthquake locations as one type of evidence in support of the theory of plate tectonics. 

Math

We've wrapped up another unit.  We completed the unit two assessment which covers the use of addition/subtraction/multiplication algorithms, as well as estimating and the use of a single variable in simple equations.  We now turn our attention to the "American Tour" which integrates the use of statistical concepts with social studies topics.  Today we looked at the US census--comparing some data from the first census in 1790 and the one in 2000.

Reading

Our skill this week is inferring--the ability to "read between the lines" to determine what the author is saying without stating it literally.  This skill is also helpful in using surrounding text to figure out the
meanings of new words.  The text Mr. Bill used in his focus lessons was a lengthy non-fiction article about the Titanic.  There was so much interest in the article that several students wanted their own copies so they could finish it.

Writing

Students continue to hone their skill in writing persuasively.  We examined several mentor texts from a collection of brief essays by famous children's authors all talking about "green" topics.  Today we read a piece from John Scieszka called "Witches' Drawers."  Ask your child what witches' drawers are and why Mr. Scieszka feels so passionately about them.