Plot, Perimeter, and the Power of the Brain!

Teacher Appreciation Week is upon us and I plan to show off my amazing teaching skills by working my students to the bone!  Hopefully, they will appreciate all I do for them by working hard, turning in their homework, and acting like model students!  Here's what I have planned for them this week:

Language Arts

Word Study

This week we continue the novel Bridge to Terabithia.  Part of the purpose of reading this week will to find and understand unfamiliar words used throughout chapters 8-11.  In addition, the word study this week uses certain suffixes (-ous, -able, -hood, -ship, -ty) to show how the part of speech changes when added.  The students will be asked to connect these words to events happening in the novel in context (written sentences).  Here are the words for the week.

Reading Comprehension

While reading chapters 8-11 in Bridge to Terabithia, we will continue to focus on diagramming the events in a plot, including the rising action and the climax (this happens in chapter 11).  This week we will focus on identifying the climax of a story through games, guided practice, watching short videos, and even creating our own comic strips!

Writing

Last week we switched gears and made inferences about the connection between Leslie and Jess in our novel.  The students had the opportunity to compare the relationship in Bridge to Terabithia, and a similar relationship in their own life.  The "My Leslie" essays will be graded this week and available for you to view on Google Classroom by Friday.  The graded rubrics will be sent home as well.

This week we will writing a few "mini essays" reflecting on the meaning of some chosen quotes from the text.  This will give the students an opportunity to show off their awesome writing skills in multiple ways in one week!

Math

Believe it or not, we began Chapter 13: Perimeter and Area on Monday!  This is our final chapter in our Go Math! curriculum and is mostly a review of skills that have been taught throughout the year while learning related skills.  This chapter will last until next Friday (the 19th) and will include a few projects and fun activities to link the geometry with the real world.

Science/Social Studies

Our STEM week was an amazing success last week and was a great way to launch our next science unit - The Human Body.  Throughout the next few weeks we will be exploring such topics as:

• Why do our biceps bulge?
• What do blind people see?
• How can some animals see in the dark?
• How does you brain control your body?

We will be using a really cool online program called Mystery Science for our learning.  This program uses informational videos, explorations, and extension activities to guide the students through learning about the powers of the human body.  Click on the picture to get more information!

Have a great week!  As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. If you haven't already, follow us on Twitter to see all that your students are appreciative for!