WHAT ARE WE LEARNING?

WRITERS WORKSHOP: Students have been learning about how authors write about memorable objects in their lives.  They brought in a memorable object, wrote about why it's important to them, and now are in the process of writing deeper.  This means they are rereading their writing and stopping at a part that "touches" their heart, and then adding more details about that part.  Look for student work to be posted soon!


READING WORKSHOP: My reading class finished with the guidelines for reading workshop, working on how punctuation helps us understand the author's meaning.  The students have also begun to write recommendations for books and are placing them in genre baskets.  These recommendations help students find new books that their classmates have enjoyed.
Some students will be working on Edmodo to post research they are doing on their guided reading books.


MATH: Last week students took their first interim assessment, and this week focused on several objectives.  One objective was to re-teach concepts that students are struggling with, such as place value, pictographs, and story problems.  We also began Unit 4, which is working with decimals, place values in the 10ths, 100ths, and 1,000ths. We have also started 4.4, which is working with adding and subtracting decimals.


SOCIAL STUDIES: We have traveled through time as historians, learning about Michigan's Early People, the lumber and mining industry.  We will continue next week on more of Michigan's early industry.  The focus for this unit was how Michigan's economy was built through industry, which brought in people from Europe, built up towns around rivers, and how life changed throughout the past 100 years.