Language Arts: This
week in Growing Your Vocabulary, the students will be responsible
for spelling and meaning of the words from chapter 14: “All Together Now”.
|
Latin
/ Greek Words
|
Root
|
Derivatives
|
|
Greek kosmos
(universe)
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cosm
|
cosmonaut,
cosmopolitan, microcosm
|
|
Latin integer
(whole
or complete)
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integr
|
integer,
integrate, integrity
|
|
Prefix pan-
(all
or every)
|
pan-
|
panorama,
pandemonium, pantheon, pandemic
|
We
will read chapters complete our current novel, The Phantom Tollbooth!
I’m sure you would agree that this is a bitter sweet ending; I hope you enjoyed
the book as much as all of the students did! We will be holding a Phantom
Tollbooth celebration on the last day of the semester (along with a Chess
tournament); I hope you can join us! (More information is coming soon. Please
look for a Sign-up Genius invitation today.) The students will spend time this
week working on the expository paragraph on Digitopolis, which will be similar
to the paragraph they wrote about Dictionopolis several weeks ago. We will
discuss the explicit steps in editing and revising to guide us in
collaboratively perfecting our writing.
The literary element that we will focus on this week is theme. We will utilize
mentor texts to model monitoring for theme. As a class, we will search for the
theme of a text by first identifying its topic. Often, these two concepts are
confused, so we will practice identifying the explicit topic and usually,
inexplicit theme. To do so, we will read and discuss the theme and topic of Spells by
Emily Gravett and Jumanji by Chris VanAllsburg. Please ask
your child to share what they enjoyed about both of these wonderful literary
pieces. The students will apply this information to guide them in identifying
the themes portrayed in The Phantom Tollbooth, as well.
The
idiom that the students will learn this week is “till the cows come home”. We
will also complete the last Latin and Greek words up to word #50. You can find
the study guide under “Assignment Forms” on the right side of this page. Please
encourage your child to study, study, study for the test next week!
History/Geography: I
am impressed by how intrigued the students have been by the rulers of Russia!
Scroll down to read about our moving discussion on the meaning and value of
strength in leadership. This week, the students will learn about Peter the
Great and Catherine the Great; we will continue to compare each ruler to their
predecessors we’ve studied. Due to the short length of this History unit and
the next one, we will hold off on assessing and instead, move straight into our
next History topic on Wednesday: Feudal Japan. (We will conclude the semester
with a test on about both Early Russia and Feudal Japan.) On Wednesday, we will
begin studying Japan by identifying its geographic location, as well as major
cities that we will study. The students will learn about how Japan started,
interesting facts about their culture, and various legends from this eastern
nation. We will spend Thursday learning about the two predominant religions in
Japan during Japanese Feudalism: Shinto and Buddhism. We will wrap up the week
by discussing the social ladder; the students will learn important terms like
“shogun” and “samurai”. Please ask your child to share this information with
you!
Science: We
are wrapping up our cells unit this week with a test on Wednesday over plant
cell organelles and mitosis. On Monday and Tuesday, the students will revisit
and review all of the content they have learned. Each student received a study
guide; this should be completed carefully and studied thoroughly since all of
this information will be on the test. Other study tools include: science notes,
worksheets, organelle flash cards, and mitosis flash cards. Don’t forget that
cell models are due on Tuesday! We look forward to seeing the masterpieces that
the students have been working so hard on! On Thursday, we will begin our next
Science unit on Plants. Miss Scheuch is very eager to teach this unit and apply
all of her collegiate-level biology knowledge to her lessons! The kids LOVE
hearing all of the interesting information that she knows! We are so lucky to
have her. :) This week, the students will revisit Kingdom Plantae to refresh
their memory of plants from the beginning of the school year. The students will
learn about different structures within vascular plants. Vocabulary that the
students will learn includes: Vascular, Nonvascular, bryophytes, roots,
stems, leaves, rhyzoids, tissue, photosynthesis, mosses, hornworts, and
liverwarts, non-woody plant, hypothesis, control, dependent and
independent variables. The students will participate in a
science experiment involving carrots and celery; be sure to ask
your child about this!
