Teacher Plans
January 23rd - 27th
Review
Another week down. Frighteningly enough, we're approaching the half way point in the year.
So how are we doing? If we go subject by subject you should see that we're in pretty good shape:
In Science, we're coming to end of the Rocks unit. We have covered Space and Simple Machines. Next up is our unit on Light and Sound that runs parallel with our recording project in February. In April, we wrap up the required Science topics with our thrilling unit on Life.
In Social Studies, we have completed our Primer on World History and our work on European Explorers. The next thing for us in Social Studies will be our unit on the Colonies and The American Revolution that will absorb the month of March.
Meanwhile, our work on Writing has been addressing all of the issues identified in the first term through our Writing Workshop Project on Personal narratives.
Ms Moll is progressing through Unit Five on Fractions and Decimals and is perfectly on course for the Math Curriculum.
We will be stepping up our Reading comprehension practice exercises during the next period of time as the MCAS in the subject starts to approach. (It actually happens in March at dates yet to be settled upon.)
All the other MCAS land in the middle of May. We will be spending the first two weeks of May working intensively on reviewing in time for the Science and Math MCAS.
During June we will be working on our final special event for you, as well as taking part in all the end-of-year events, such as Field Day, Junior Olympics and 'Moving On'!
So there you have it: broadly speaking we are perfectly 'on course'.
Last week, we had some specific lessons and events that were skipped: The Reading Comprehension question was a particularly challenging question that would have sapped the student's confidence had I persisted and insisted.
Also, the Egg drop needed to be rescheduled to Tuesday, January 24th at 1:30pm due to the inclement weather circumstances on Friday (inclement circumstances on the roof of the school, that is!).
The DARE class reached its conclusion on Thursday. The students seemed to have enjoyed the class. Now they must complete the essay to graduate, for the first time, from a class!
The second group meeting on Thursday afternoon was really neat. The writing shared by Conor, Ben, Francesca and Alex was uniformly impressive. We sang 'Fix You' and 'Another Brick in the Wall, part 2', like a proverbial choir of angels. For the talent part of the meeting, Niamh played an Irish tune on the violin, Katrina played a wonderful keyboard piece and Maddi showed us how to dance, Zumba style! Ms. Moll, flashed the room lights rhythmically as if we were in a cheap 1980's disco, as Maddi thumped and gyrated to the brutal pumping sounds of Jennifer Lopez.
There really is an excellent spirit of camaraderie in the whole group.
I love it!
This week
The Writing Workshop project is approaching its first deadline point this week. You'll be seeing each student's personal work at the end of the week, since the typing and final editing will be the next homework project. Shortly after that, you will have the opportunity to read each student's work as it gets published as a group project to the website.
The Rocks project is also reaching it's final phase this week when we look at plate tectonics and the structure of the Earth.
This week dastardly Mr. Allen will finally launch the hapless egg-pilots and their fiendish devices from the roof of the school!
Prepare for launch on Tuesday, January 24th, 1:30 - 2:00pm...
We have a special guest coming in to talk about Rocks on Wednesday: Lia's Dad, who has a collection of phosphorescent rocks which he will share with us, along with his knowledge. Should be fascinating!
Specialist Class
See you all back here next Sunday!
Language
- 'Writing Workshop' is where the students work on personal projects of their own choosing. This week, the students continue working on their individual projects. The first project is based on creating Personal Narratives. The students each will finalize one or more pieces to develop and publish here on the site towards the end of the month.
- I've posted a special page of the rough lesson plans for this project for those of you who are interested and are willing to dig through my slightly obtuse notes. Page references are all from the source I'm sticking closely to for this project, 'Launching the Writing Workshop' by Lucy Calkins and Marjorie Martinelli.
We're currently on Lesson 12 of the plan. This week we will focus on developing timelines, reliving memories, paragraphing, elaborating our writing and revising the heart of our seed ideas.
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We will be reading about about Earthquakes, Fault lines and the structure of the Earth.
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We're reading the powerful, 'Witness' by Karen Hesse. The book is arranged into five Acts. Each Act is a series of monologues from a host of the characters resident in Burlington, Vermont in 1924 when the Ku Klux Klan tried to set up their organization in the town.
At the end of Act 3, The Ku Klux Klan have revealed their unpleasant nature – but in 1924, what is obvious to us in 2012, was not as obvious to them. The tension continues to grow and swell as we we enter Act 4.
Math
www.msmoll.com
Follow the links to find out about what are students are doing in Math this week...
Project
Rocks, minerals and fossils
This week, in the final section of the project, we investigate the structure of the Earth. We will find out about the layers of the Earth, about how rocks bend and break, and we conclude with a more involved and fascinating section on 'plate tectonics'.
We will visit the UCMP ( University of California Museum of Paleontology) website for a tour of geologic time and some classic cheesy animations on how fossils form and how we date rocks and fossils.
We will complete an activity about Mining that I'm sure the students will enjoy!
We have a special guest coming in to talk about Rocks on Wednesday: Lia's Dad, who has a collection of phosphorescent rocks which he will share with us along with his knowledge.
Should be fascinating!
Rocks and Minerals Links
Invention Challenge 2 - The Eggdrop Challenge
Build a contraption to protect a cute little egg when evil Mr. Allen chucks it off the roof of the school!! (Rules apply to this challenge restricting the nature of the device.)
Prepare for launch on Tuesday, January 24th, 1:30 - 2:00pm...
Homework
The students will receive their next homework project on Friday, January 27th.
This homework will be due in on Friday, February 3rd.
This week, the homework will be typing the Writing Workshop Project.
Students will usually receive their homework jobs for the whole week each Friday. Look for it in the student's backpack.
Each project will be up on the 'Homework' page here at the site each Friday evening.
Check out the 'News’ page for the 'Parent's Guide to Homework', as well as other delectible follies!
See you back here next week!
