Language Arts: This week, the students will
study Chapter 12 of Growing Your
Vocabulary.
Chapter 12: The Same Difference
|
Latin/Greek
Word
|
Root
|
English Derivatives
|
|
Greek
mimos
(same)
|
mim
|
mimic, mime, pantomime
|
|
LATIN
similis
(same or like)
|
siml
|
similar, assimilate, simulate, simile, facsimile, symbol, sympathize,
symphony, symptom
|
This week, we will continue reading The Phantom
Tollbooth. The literary skills we will focus on are poetic devices. Your
children will learn about alliteration, rhyme, similes, and metaphors. We will
use mentor texts to practice identifying these devices, and then apply them to
our current novel.
The students will continue writing
their expository essays about the important settings that Milo and Tock visit
in The Phantom Tollbooth. Have you had a chance to read your child’s
first paragraph about Dictionopolis? They are very well-written! Our writing
block will be spent covering strategies of writing a quality five-paragraph
essay, as well as introducing new vocabulary, and analogies. Our Grammar
studies will consist of understanding and identifying subject pronouns, possessive
pronouns, coordinate conjunctions, and compound parts (such as compound subject
nouns: CSN, compound subject pronouns: CSP, compound verbs: CV, compound
objects of prepositions: COP, etc.)
The idiom the students will learn
this week is “to make a mountain out of a molehill”. We will also learn more
Latin and Greek words.
History/Geography: We are moving along in our
study of Exploration! Has your child shared any interesting information about the
explorers they’ve learned about? This week, the students will:
·
learn about why England wanted to colonize America. The students will identify the locations that England colonized as opposed
to where the Spaniards colonized.
·
learn about cartography. They will
identify the locations that France colonized as well as their explorers.
·
understand why the Dutch were interested
in the Americas. The students will identify
the “Stopover Colony” as well as the accomplishments of Henry Hudson.
·
gain an understanding for why slavery
started. They will identify the Middle Passage as well as the various pieces of
the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade. Students will be able to identify some
characteristics of plantation life.
Science: The students will review for
the animal cells test on Monday and Tuesday, and then take the test on
Wednesday. You can find the study guide below as well as links to some of the
notes. The students have an abundance of study tools that they should utilize
to prepare for this exam; these include: a cell to label, Power Points with
notes, notes/definitions in their notebooks, and flash cards that state the functions
of each organelle. Thursday and Friday of this week will be spent learning
about plant cells. Please ask your child to explain the differences between
these two types of cells!
