Newsletter Info

Social Studies
We will take a closer look at one of the world's early civilizations: Mesopotamia. We will learn about the farming practices of these people who lived in the land of two rivers. We will discuss how irrigation changed the landscape and helped the Sumerian people of southern Mesopotamia. Later in the week, we will look at how people were able to specialize and learn other skills because of the food surplus in the region. There will be a quiz Friday.

Science
Please see the blog for a detailed explanation of our "Create-a-Lab" activities. Our student led experiments are scheduled to finish Thursday. If all goes according to plan, we will play Jeopardy in class on Friday. We will then take the unit test on the properties of solids and liquids on Monday the 31st. If this changes, students will be asked to write a note in their planner on Thursday. Please look there for updates. Thank you for your patience as we take this opportunity to let them tinker with the scientific process.

Math Workshop
We are beginning Unit 4, which is called Perimeter, Angles, and Area. In this unit, we will develop ideas about the attributes of 2-dimensional (2-D) and 3-dimensional (3-D) shapes and help the students understand how these attributes determine their classification. They will also develop ideas about linear measurement (which includes perimeter), square measurement (area), the measurement of angles, and volume. This week the students will develop their ability to use measurement tools to accurately measure objects. They will learn that perimeter is the distance around the outside edges of a 2-dimensional figure and that it can be measured. The homework sheet for this week is Sheet #18 and will be checked in class on Wednesday and Friday. The students will have their January Calendar Math quiz on Tuesday.

Create-a-Lab Projects

Over the next two weeks, our class will be embarking on a scientific adventure...the students will be designing and conducting their own experiments, focusing on the properties of liquids and solids. The students are very excited about this project! So far, students have brainstormed ideas as a whole group, before submitting their top three choices for review. Groups were then matched according to interest. Hopefully, your child shared their lab topic with you over the weekend. The labs will be conducted at school during class time, however, we will need parent support in collecting the materials. Each group has already made a list of supplies they need to begin collecting, so if you are interested in assisting us, please talk with your child about their specific needs. This week, we will work at school to finish up the planning stages of the lab. Students will be working in groups for a portion of the science workshop, each day. They will work together to develop a group lab sheet, which includes a lab title, guiding question, a list of materials, and a list of procedures they plan to follow to conduct the lab. Next week, groups will meet again to begin carrying out their lab plans. They will record their predictions, make observations, record results, and finish up with a final conclusion. Again, this will be done at school. This will be a graded assignment, and students will be presented with a rubric that will be used for evaluation later this week. How can you help? Ask them about their progress each day. Share in their excitement. Encourage them to do their best! And as always, if you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to send us an email. We will be happy to address your concerns.

Newsletter Info

Social Studies
Our focus will shift back in time to the world's earliest communities. We will learn about this prehistoric time before people learned to write. We will learn how early people lived, and we will discuss the similarities and differences between our civilization and theirs. We will also learn about the farming practices of these early people, as well as how these practices changed the land.


Science
We will spend the first part of the week learning about the scientific process in greater detail (i.e. how scientists gather evidence to prove their conclusions), so that we can spend the latter half of the week developing and carrying out our own student-designed experiments on solids and liquids. There will be a quiz on Wednesday, which will be a review of the properties and molecular configuration of solids, liquids, and gases. Your child's science notebook, which includes notes from class and lab sheets from experiments, is the best study tool for this quiz.

Math Workshop

Our class is wrapping up our work with the Math Investigations unit about patterns and functions called Stories, Tables, and Graphs. In this unit the students learn about situations that involve change and ways to mathematically describe and represent this change. They will use tables and graphs to represent how one quantity changes in relation to another quanitity. A family letter was sent home on Tuesday, January 4th that included the benchmark goals for this unit and examples of graphs and tables with example questions for each. The students will have the end of unit assessment on Friday.