Mr. Blanc's Class

Update I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break. Because we only had two days of school last week the students were not given new vocabulary words. Instead they will be given new words tomorrow. Those words will be tested on Tuesday, 12/5. Reading In addition to not being assigned vocab words last week, students were also not assigned reading logs. There was an optional reading log that went home over the break. A new reading log will be sent home 11/28, it will be due the following Tuesday, 12/5. We will be shifting gears to a unit on nonfiction reading. This week students will work on an assessment to see what areas we need to focus on during our unit. Writing We will also begin a new writing unit this week. Our new unit will cover informational writing. Similar to reading, we will begin with a pretest to determine where we begin. We will be applying our informational writing skills in our migration inquiry unit. Inquiry On Monday, 11/27, students will find out w...

Writing The final drafts of our narrative papers were due on Friday, 11/17. We will not be spending anymore time in class on the papers, so if a student doesn't have their paper complete, they will need to finish it at home. Check in with your student to see if they turned their paper in on Friday. Reading Next week students will complete a post assessment on our Interpreting Characters unit. They will read a passage and answer four questions. The big focus in our unit has been reading intensely to grow big ideas about characters. To show proficiency on this assessment, students will need to support their ideas with evidence from the text. Idiom of the week: cost an arm and a leg Math We will continue our study of multiplication. Students have been practicing multiplying by 10, 100, and 1,000. Next week they will begin multiplying up to four digits by a single digit number.  Inquiry Our migration unit has gotten off to a strong start. So far students have learned a...

Math Students will come home on Monday, 11/13, with their math assessment that was taken last Thursday. Go over your student's test with them. Our next math unit will cover multiplication and division. Next week students will begin the unit by working on finding the area and perimeter of quadrilaterals. Reading Next week we will wrap up our reading unit that focuses on interpreting characters in realistic fiction texts. This unit teaches students how to go beyond just following the plot of the story and begin reading intensely to grow strong ideas about what they read. Our most recent lessons have been about finding the theme of our stories. Ask your student to tell you what they think the theme of their book is, make sure they support their idea with evidence from the text. Idiom of the week: hit the road Writing Students are in the middle of revising and editing one of their narrative drafts. The final drafts will be typed and due on Friday, 11/17. Students will be ...

There will be no school on Friday, November 10th, in observance of Veterans' Day. Reading Students have their usual weekly reading log due on Tuesday, 11/7. Have your student tell you what their current reading goal is. Idiom of the week : out of the blue Writing Students will begin the process of selecting one of their first narrative drafts and then taking it through the revising and editing process to create a published piece. Ask your student which of their narratives they plan on publishing. Math We will be finishing up our unit on place value, rounding, and multi-digit addition and subtraction next week. There will be a test on the unit on Thursday, November 9th. You can help your student prepare for their test by going over the practice test that will come home with them on Wednesday, November 8th. Inquiry On Monday we will begin our inquiry unit with the central idea of migration impacts individuals and communities. At the beginning of this unit we will stud...