The Week Ahead 1/13-1/17

How the World Works
We are nearing the end of our How the World Works inquiry with the central idea that people use scientific knowledge to respond to a changing Earth. Students have been working hard researching their natural disasters and writing an informational paper about them. Next week they'll begin our culminating project for this unit, which will involve the students filming videos using a green screen. The filming of these videos will take place on 1/21, 1/22, and 1/23. 
We’re asking for parent volunteers to sign up for sections of time to film a small group of students using an iPad. We will set up the green screen and the students will be well rehearsed and ready to go. If you are interested in filming please go to the link below and sign up for a time. We are asking for two volunteers for each filming session. Feeling a little unsure about using the technology? No worries, we’ll give a quick 10-15 minute tutorial on how to use the iPad to film with a green screen on Friday, 1/17 at 2:45.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jB_9ThpUVsvvEkmibJyZRE_lnpQaFS2sT761JKQ3X_0/edit

Reading
We have continued our work on reading nonfiction texts. Students have been determining the main idea and identifying supporting details. In addition, they are continuing to use knowledge of the structure of the text to help with comprehension. The text structures we have noticed are cause & effect, chronological/sequential, problem/solution, description, and compare/contrast. Students will have a reading log due on Tuesday, 1/14.

Writing
The students have been writing an informational text on their natural disaster. At this point they should be getting close to finishing their first draft. There are three subtopics they need to include in their paper, warning signs, ways to be prepared, and examples from the past. Students will also write an introduction and conclusion paragraph. They are welcome to include additional subtopics if they would like to.

Idiom of the Week: the cold shoulder

Math
This week students worked on finding the area and perimeter of rectangles. An area for growth with the whole class is to make sure to include the units in their answers when solving problems. Next week we'll work our way to multiplying a one digit number by a four digit number.  

Upcoming Dates
  • Tuesday, January 14th - Reading Log Due/Vocab Test
  • Friday, January 17th - Filming Tutorial for Volunteers 2:45
  • Monday, January 20th - No School - MLK Day
  • Monday, January 27th - No School - Grading Day

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