Dear Families,
It is already the last week of March! The snow is quickly melting in the sun so I hope you’re getting out your final winter playtime before break up swamps us! I made use of the sunshine to get in some ice fishing over the weekend…which just made me that much more excited for summer fishing! This week in class we’re going to ramp up a bit from last week by launching our cultural studies unit on the U.S. Bill of Rights. We’ll be matching descriptions and examples with each amendment while analyzing the unusual language that is sprinkled throughout. This week we’ll also begin a novel study. Our class will be divided into three groups between the books I Am Malala (Young Reader’s Edition) by Malala Yousafzai and Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet. Throughout the novel study we will alternate days between partner reading and group reading/discussions. In order to ensure discussions are most meaningful for the entire group, students will be asked not to read ahead. In science we will be looking at different adaptations we find in the world around us. As part of this and as mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we will be participating in a dissection of a sea otter on Friday afternoon. Sea otter adaptations include their thick fur coat used for survival in cool ocean waters, flippered feet for swimming, and giant lungs for buoyancy. Our look into figurative language will begin this week as well. We’re going to start with similes (ex: the player was as tall as a skyscraper). We’ll also be working on some skyscrapers dealing with classifications in addition to our weekly graphic organizers for practice in sequencing and compare/contrast in reading comprehension. Math this week we’ll see 4th graders adding and subtracting fractions, 5th graders multiplying and dividing fractions, and 6th graders working with units of measure. Additionally, the entire class is doing the second part of a project on mean, median, mode, and range where they collected data from peers or faculty; this week they will organize the data onto a histogram. As a reminder to our fourth grade students: next week is our state assessment in science, on Monday April 3rd. (All other tests for our class are during the week of April 17). These are computerized tests produced by a new-to-Alaska company, PEAKS. For more info, please check out ASD’s information on the tests at http://www.asdk12.org/peaks/ . Finally, on Friday evening our choir is performing for our Fine Arts Night, 6:30-8pm. As always, please feel free to call/text/email/or stop by with any questions, concerns, or celebrations!
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