Jan. 4-8

Happy New Year to all the room 21 families! I hope that you all had a great holiday. We've been busy this week, starting off the new year with a new inquiry and new concepts. 

This week in math students have been working on algebra and learned how to solve for unknown variables. This will be a short unit that will lead into perimeter and area next week. The next quiz will cover algebra and perimeter and area. 

We started a new inquiry this week, entitled, "What is Freedom?" Students worked in groups to brainstorm subquestions that we will investigate throughout the unit. I was so impressed with the depth and breadth of the questions that the class created! Students have begun their independent writing for the month on the topic of freedom. We also began a second round of literature circles, using novels that have a common theme of freedom. 

In science we have begun to discuss the strands of Forces Acting on Structures, (gr. 5)  and Flight, (gr. 6). We developed success criteria for a design and make project. Grade 5s will create a structure that can protect an egg when dropped 3m. Grade 6s will create a paper airplane that flies as far as possible. Project will be completed at school, but testing can be done at home. Students need to bring in materials for their project by next Thursday. 

Homework for this week:

1) Read your literature circle book and complete your role sheets for each meeting. 

2) Complete math- algebra. 

3) Complete the cursive. The goal is to start writing most work in cursive this month. 

4) Go to the website, "Teaching Kids News". http://teachingkidsnews.com/ Read the four featured articles. Evaluate them and decide which article you enjoyed the most and why. Be prepared to talk about all 4 articles. 

Important upcoming dates:

Tuesday, Jan. 12: literature circle meeting #2
Thursday, Jan 14: homework due, pool, science build

Friday, Jan. 15: literature circle meeting #3

Jan 25-27: Mono Cliffs for grade 6

Best,

Bronwyn Davidson