What's Happening in Room 127? (December)

December in Review

Here are some of the things we've been working on this month:

ELA:  We have been learning about ancient Rome.  In this unit we have been reading different selections about the culture and historical events of ancient Rome.  We have also read different myths about Roman gods and goddesses.  While reading we have been focusing on identifying the point of view of a text, main idea/supporting details, and the lesson of a story.  

In spelling we have been focusing on different ways to spell the long e sound (e, ee, ea, ie, and i).  In grammar we have been reviewing verb tenses and the verbs to be and to have.  In this unit we have been learning about the suffixes -er, -or, -ist, -ian, and when we return from break -y and -al.

We are continuing to focus on opinion writing.  During this unit students wrote an opinion piece on which god or goddess they think deserves a statue in present-day Rome.  When we return from break we will be doing a multi-day writing project where students will write an opinion piece about whether they think architecture or Latin was Rome's greatest lasting contribution.

Math: In module 3 we are back to focusing on multiplication and division.  We are focusing on the facts for 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and 1.  With this, we are working a lot on using the distributive property (or breaking apart method as we sometimes call it) to help break a harder multiplication problem into two simpler problems that are easier for us to solve.  This will be helpful for students when they face a problem that they don't know the answer to, instead of drawing arrays and equal groups.  We have also been solving one step word problems including a variable for the unknown.  It is very important that students keep practicing their multiplication and division facts!   

Social Studies:  We just wrapped up our second unit "History".  With this unit we learned about why people have come to settle in the United States from other countries.  We also spent a lot of time learning about how all of our cultures are unique.  We learned about different languages, holidays, traditions, and foods that communities share.  As part of this unit we learned about different individuals who worked to make their community better.  In groups the students read about one individual and created a human monument that represented the work that this person did.  They also created a plaque describing what the monument shows and how this person helped their community.  

Second Step:  We talked about kindness and friendship.

Health:  In health we talked about assertiveness and bullying.  The purpose of these lessons were to:

• identify peer influences as passive, aggressive, or assertive
• explain why it is important to resist any negative peer pressure to bully others 
• and to practice assertive techniques.

Coming Up
Some of the things that we will be working on in January are:

ELA:  The topic of our next unit will be about space where we will be focusing on comparing/contrasting, cause/effect, and writing informative paragraphs.

Math:  We will be continuing with multiplication and division.

Science:  Our next unit is forces and motion.

Dates to Remember:

Dec. 18 - Holiday Sing 

Dec. 20-Jan. 4 - Winter Break

Jan. 19 - No School