Writing Extension

Opportunity

2019 WATG Conference Logo Design Contest

Compare and Contrast Characters, Setting and Events

For the second half of 2nd quarter we worked on comparing and contrasting characters, setting and events within a story. This is the process we followed in order to do this.

We modeled comparing and contrasting characters, setting and events in separate weeks. After modeling, students completed the process with a text of their choice. Here is the organizer we used to produce our work...

As a final check students read a text titled, "Just Another Day", chose whether they wanted to compare characters, setting or events, then completed the process independently.

Bridges: Multiplication Strategies

We have spent A LOT of time learning soooo many multiplication strategies. Many of the strategies are the kind we can learn to compute in our heads like Over Strategy, and Doubling and Halving. Others require us to compute the numbers like Partial Products, and the Standard Algorithm, which was our final outcome: 
Grade 5 » Number & Operations in Base Ten » Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths.  -Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. 
Here are some examples of the kind of work we've done to go from our number sense strategies to the algorithm. 

Here is the classroom poster showing the many different strategies we learned

 to multiply multi-digit numbers. 

Next we dive into using some of these strategies to divide, starting with the Ratio Table. Here's an example of today's work. 

Godfrey- Non-Fiction Animal Pages

After reading, taking notes, drafting sentences, revising and editing, we finally got to publish our non-fiction animal pages! Ask your child to tell you about the animal they researched! Click on the link below to see a slideshow of our work.

Shorette Non-Fiction Animal Pages

After reading, taking notes, drafting sentences, revising and editing, we finally got to publish our non-fiction animal pages! Ask your child to tell you about the animal they researched! For the next couple of weeks we are writing books in the format of "Diary of a Worm" about the animal we researched.

Randall Spelling Bee

This week we did five classroom spelling bee rounds to determine who would represent our classes in the Randall spelling bee. The kids were so encouraging and supportive of each other as they put themselves out there and tried their best! Congrats to Andy M. (Shorette) and Madeleine B. (Godfrey) for winning their classroom rounds.  Congrats also to Dafna C. (Shorette) and Owen P. and Reuben E. (Godfrey) for finishing in second place and earning the alternate place. They will represent their respective classes in the Randall bee on Friday, January 18th at 1 p.m. in the cafeteria. If your child is representing their class you are welcome to watch and cheer them on!

Mixtures and Solutions

This week we started a new science unit - Mixtures and Solutions. In this unit students will experiment with a variety of materials to see how they combine together. Throughout the unit we are also focusing on making detailed observations, keeping organized notes, making predictions and recording our outcomes. We began by combing a variety of fruits to make our first mixture!

We followed this up by experimenting to see if combining gravel, salt and diatomaceous earth with water would also create a mixture. In the coming weeks we will explore the separation of mixtures, the process of saturation, and chemical reactions.