Click HERE to access MONDAY's Satellite Learning Assignment: Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Please check back for weekend Satellite Learning Assignments to be posted. I promise they will be FUN (but also educational), and will help prepare your child for our activities next week. I will send an email and blog post when they are ready to be accessed by your child.
Our Astro-Cadets are LOVING the Satellite Learning Assignments, and we have seen POSITIVE IMPACT proving that participating in these activities at your Satellite Learning Station (your home) is improving our ability to complete activities, projects, and group work at school!
THANK YOU for jumping in and participating in this learning extension at home!! These activities are set up to PREP students for the day/week to come. Building this background knowledge at home means we can spend more time on small group and 1:1 instruction, hands-on activities, and applying our learning......rather than listening to me lecturing on a lesson or watching an educational video clip as a whole class. Time is PRECIOUS during our day, and Satellite Learning Assignments mean our Astro-Cadets come prepared and excited for the next day's learning activities.
Students come to class prepared and confident (even if they need assistance, because they have built schema by completing the task before we complete an activity or I re-teach it). Based on their responses to questions posed and self-evaluations (how well did you understand the video and activities) on each assignment, I come into the day knowing which students have mastered the skill (and need challenging extension work), which students need some help (to reinforce the skill and boost confidence), and which students would benefit from 1:1 or small group reteaching on each particular skill. Receiving student responses the day before we begin activities means I come to school knowing EXACTLY how to serve each student for different lessons throughout the week and we can hit the ground running!
This is MEANINGFUL "homework" that allows for true differentiation in class to meet the needs of every child as well as promotes responsibility and independent learning/practice at home. Satellite Learning Stations take our learning "to infinity.....and beyond!" (...the classroom to your home)
PLEASE read to find out about our exciting learning adventures this week! Fill out the comment form below with your child for 5 extra DOJO points!!! MATH:- standard measurement units
- metric measurement units
- capacity
- temperature
- time
- perimeter and area
SCIENCE: FORCES & MOTION
- Currently we are at the beginning of our "INVENTIONS & ENGINEERING" science unit.
- Our literature studies and writing (starting next week) will also tie into this unit.
- Forces & motion (including gravity) are our current focus.
- Academic Science Vocabulary: force, motion, push, pull, friction, gravity, speed, position, relative position, magnetism, work
- Next week we will use this knowledge to learn about SIMPLE MACHINES.
- Building on our forces, motion, and simple machine studies, we will begin our own engineering adventures by researching, building, and advertising our OWN INVENTIONS! These inventions will be much-needed items for our future SPACE COLONY!
- More to come on the Mission 125 engineering explorations and invention fair!!! Stay tuned!
| LITERACY:- Comprehension: Our whole-class read-aloud is currently Magic Treehouse: Monday With a Mad Genius. It focuses on adventures with one of the greatest artists and inventors of all time--Leonardo DaVinci.
- Comprehension Carousel:
1) What is the author TELLING us (on the pages, directly)? 2) Find interesting or difficult words (vocabulary) in the text. 3) What does the author want us to UNDERSTAND (NOT directly in the text, we must find evidence in the text and INFER meaning)? 4) Does the author play with FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE and how does that enhance the text (adjectives, vivid verbs, similes, metaphors, repeated catch- phrases, etc.) - Accuracy: Does it look right, sound right, and make sense? Do I need to "flip" the vowel sound or "chunk" the word?
- Fluency: Matching our voices to the words describing feelings and voice in the text (whispered, shouted, angrily, excitedly, etc.)
- Expanding Vocabulary: using context clues and schema to infer meanings of unknown words; checking our inferred meanings in the dictionary
- INVENTION-Themed Differentiated Book Clubs: Starting next week, students will be in small group book clubs. Each book club will center around the topic of inventions and inventors (to tie in with our science unit), but will be different books based on goals and strategies appropriate for each group of students in the book clubs. We will be practicing our book club jobs and continually examining and answering the 4 "comprehension carousel" questions listed above.
GRAMMAR:- adjectives (juicy describing words)
- vivid verbs (using synonyms to turn boring action verbs into VIVID verbs)
WRITING:- 6 Traits-WORD CHOICE & VOICE: Using figurative language to enhance our writing like real authors ((adjectives, vivid verbs, similes, metaphors, repeated catch-phrases, onomatopoeia)
- Our current writing project is: "If I Lived in a Snow Globe"
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Click HERE or on the image below to be redirected to Thursday's satellite learning assignment.
MATH:- multiplication
- Strategies: repeated addition, arrays, drawing equal groups of
- multiplication number patterns
- multiplication and division problem-solving
- perimeter and area
- XtraMath and IXL online
SOCIAL STUDIES: IMMIGRATION & CULTURE
- immigration/immigrants, countries of origin, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, settling in America, citizenship, cultures and celebrations
- Ask your child about the class "FAMILY" they have been grouped with and what "COUNTRY OF ORIGIN" they are assigned!!
- Students will continue working in their family groups throughout next week. Simulation activities include/will include, packing a suitcase for America (limited space for entire family, reasoning and justifying items packed), Ellis Island entrance/exams/etc., country of origin research and project, life in America beyond Ellis Island.........WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR FAMILIES ONCE THEY ARE IN AMERICA?? Will they find work? Will they be separated at Ellis Island? Will some members get sent back to their country of origin?
- This ties nicely to our year-long theme of working to build a space colony for the future because we are learning what it's like to come to a new land to live and the processes necessary or that we'd like to change when admitting people to our space colony!
- Watch for PHOTOS in our SCRAPBOOK!
| We are making great progress through our curriculum and soaring through our learning targets!
LITERACY:- Comprehension: Book Clubs (see tasks below)
- Accuracy: "Cross-Check" and "Back Up & Re-read" strategies
- Fluency: Voracious reading, smooth and expressive voice, choosing just right/good fit books, 5 finger rule
- Expanding Vocabulary: using context clues to infer meanings of unknown words
- Magic Tree House Hour of the Olympics CLASS BOOK CLUB!! Students engaged in collaborative book clubs as our entire class explored MTH Hour of the Olympics! Roles and responsibilities included Summary Spy, Director of Discussion, Word Whiz, Trait Tracker, Clever Connector, Illuminating Illustrator, Queen/King of Questions, and Fact Finder. Students also each had their own vocabulary journals to explore and document new words found in the text. The experience has been great, and we are culminating the experience with group reflection projects next week. More book clubs to come after winter break and WATCH FOR PHOTOS IN OUR SCRAPBOOK!
GRAMMAR:- verbs, helping verbs, irregular verbs
- editing
WRITING:- 6 Traits-ORGANIZATION & SENTENCE FLUENCY: hooking readers with great introductions, transitions, and thesis statement; completing organizing planning page independently
- Projects and writing assignments are tied to immigration and culture unit (see left).
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MATH:- multiplication
- Strategies: repeated addition, arrays, drawing equal groups of
- multiplication number patterns
- XtraMath and IXL online
SCIENCE: SOLAR SYSTEM
- patterns in the sky, seasons, night and day, moon characteristics and phases
- Coming Soon: Constellations
- Vocabulary: star, axis, rotation, revolution, phase, lunar eclipse, telescope, constellation
| We are making great progress through our curriculum and soaring through our learning targets!
LITERACY:- Comprehension: fact and opinion
- Accuracy: consonant blends
- Fluency: Voracious reading, smooth and expressive voice, choosing just right/good fit books, 5 finger rule
- Expanding Vocabulary: using context clues to infer meanings of unknown words
GRAMMAR:- pronouns, plural pronouns (review)
- simple subjects and predicates
- compound subjects and predicates
- editing
WRITING:- journaling, editing, revising
- 6 Traits-ORGANIZATION & SENTENCE FLUENCY: hooking readers with great introductions, transitions, and pros/cons organization strategy
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We are getting ready for hands-on space craftivities! Multi-sensory, creative activities provide multiple modalities for students to experience learning. The hands-on nature and high-interest level of these projects are perfect for reviewing and reinforcing the science concepts of moon phases, constellations, and surface design/texture of planets. Please help us engage in these activities by donating needed supplies. THANK YOU! | As a culminating activity to our study of moon phases, we will be creating Oreo moon cycles! Students will HOT GLUE the oreos to their moon maps (as seen above) and will get to eat ONE cookie as a small special treat. We need approximately 8 packages of regular Oreo cookies donated in order to complete this activity. | In addition to creating paper towel roll stargazers with constellation disks (see post below), we will work to hand-create constellations with toothpicks and marshmallows. We HAVE ALL of the marshmallows we need and DO NOT need any marshmallows donated. However, we ARE in need of toothpicks. Students will be allowed to eat a few marshmallows after they complete their constellation creations. IF you would prefer your child NOT use/eat marshmallows, GRAPES are an alternative. Please send in grapes for your child if you prefer your son/daughter NOT work with marshmallows. To help students remember planets in our solar system, we will be creating textured artistic representations of our planets using dried beans. As you can see from the example above, the beans allow for hands-on, detailed creations that will enable students to remember key characteristics of the planets. Students will then write acrostic poems for their planetary creations. In order to complete this craftivity, we need SEVERAL bags of different types of dried beans, split peas, etc. We will also need WET GLUE (Elmers). |
 Howl at the MOON!
Last week your child came home with 3 exciting papers:
1) Science family newsletter with details about vocabulary, moon phases, and more
2) Complete moon phases handout
3) MOON JOURNAL!!!!!! (Instructions for completing moon journal are inside the front cover)
Continue using your child's moon journal, record your moon observations this weekend (SATURDAY/SUNDAY). SUNDAY evening COMMENT on this post letting me know what PHASES of the moon you observed over the weekend to receive 5 bonus Class DOJO points! Keep recording for the next two weeks and have fun!
Did your child tell you that we watched a live webcast interview with J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) last week? The interview was PACKED full of information about the writing process, importance of editing and revising, and details about how to develop characters and add juicy details as writers. She spoke about her writing experiences as a small child and encouraged the students to read and write as much as possible. Rowling also mesmerized us by reading her favorite passage from the first book in the series. While we were not able to watch the entire webcast, what we saw directly impacted our writing workshop for the day! Check out the replay of the interview, the Harry Potter Reading Club, and Pottermore site by clicking on the image below!
MATH:- rounding
- estimating
- add double-, triple-, and larger digit numbers
- place value
- XtraMath and IXL online
SCIENCE: SOLAR SYSTEM
- patterns in the sky, seasons, night and day, moon characteristics and phases
- Coming Soon: Constellations
- Vocabulary: star, axis, rotation, revolution, phase, lunar eclipse, telescope, constellation
| We are making great progress through our curriculum and soaring through our learning targets!
LITERACY:- Comprehension: story elements and retelling
- Accuracy: compound words
- Fluency: Voracious reading, smooth and expressive voice, choosing just right/good fit books, 5 finger rule
- Expanding Vocabulary: using context clues to infer meanings of unknown words
GRAMMAR:- pronouns, plural pronouns
- simple subjects and predicates
- editing
WRITING:- journaling, editing, revising
- 6 Traits-ORGANIZATION & SENTENCE FLUENCY: basic story structure; repeated catchphrases
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