What's Happening in Room 127? (January)

January in Review

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

ELA:   Since wrapping up our unit on ancient Rome we have been reading the novel Stella Diaz has Something to Say.  While reading this novel we have been working on elements of reading fiction text.  As we have been reading we have been practicing different ways to summarize fiction texts by using the "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then" strategy and the "5Ws" strategy (who, what, where, when, why).  We have also been working on identifying character traits and being able to support those with evidence from the text.  Making predictions and asking/answering questions with text support have also been a part of our daily reading.

The main writing project in this unit is planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing a fictional narrative.  We have also been working on writing written responses in answering questions to the texts that we are reading.  With a written response students need to name the story they are writing about, state their opinion or thesis (or answer the question), give evidence from the story by using exact quotes or summarizing parts of the story, use transitional phrases to lead into the evidence, and explain why their evidence matters.  

Science:  We studied forces and motion.  During this unit we worked on identifying the position and motion of forces, balanced vs. unbalanced forces, we measured patterns of motion to make predictions of future motion, and we learned about bar magnets. The students completed a STEM challenge where given only certain materials (magnet, paperclip tied to a string, masking tape, cups of different sizes, and popsicle sticks) they needed to design and build a structure that would allow a paperclip to float in the air, against the pull of gravity. We also created electromagnets and studied static electricity.  

Math:  We finished module 3 by learning how to multiply by multiples of 10 and solving two-step word problems. It is very important that students keep practicing their multiplication and division facts!  Our current unit is on area.  So far in this unit we have explored the attributes of rectangles, squares, and trapezoids.  We have also tiled rectangles and squares to relate the side lengths to area. 

Coming Up

Some of the things we will be working on in February are:

ELA:  In the next unit we will be reading about the Native Americans.

Social Studies:  Our next unit will be about economics.