Curriculum Update March 5-8

Phew! Reading assessments are over. Today, I informed your child what level they scored on the test. Please remember these are only preliminary results.  You will receive official scores with exact percentages and levels at the end of the school year.  We will now begin reviewing for the math state assessments that will take place March 27-29.
If you haven't returned your published book form, please do Please remember there is no school on Friday, March 9.

Rigby Reading
We will continue focusing on compare and contrast and reviewing determine importance. We will also look for personification in our stories.

enVision Math
We have finished Topic 15, which focused on liquid voluma and mass. We will review on Monday and take the test on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday, we will go over things for the state assessments.

Spelling
Spelling resumes this week. The Rigby focus will be proper nouns.  This list is bring, fast, green, hand, Kansas, Shawnee, Johnson County, Topeka, United States, Capitol, and Washington, D.C. The extension list focus is circ, circum (round, around). The list is circle, circlet, circuit, circulate, circumference, circumflex, circumnavigate, circumrotate, circumspect and circumvent.

Social Studies
We continued learning about economics this week. We learned about interest, saving, borrowing and spending. The students used graphs to understand the concept of the book, Less than Zero that focused on these concepts. Afterwards, they created their own savings goals. We also learned about what goes into creating and running a business. They can reinforce this concept at home at
http://disney.go.com/hotshot/hsb3/index.html

Science
We began a unit on sound. We learned about pitch, frequency, vibration and friction. On Tuesday, we had a balloon experiment where students learned that sound vibrations travel. They also learned how to use their senses to determine different vibrations. Students learned how vibrations can be changed to alter pitch.  On Thursday, we had did a chicken in a cup experiment. The students tested the difference in sound between a dry string and a wet one.  They learned about friction being formed form the wet paper towel. This increased the sound.

They created loud chicken sounds using a wet paper towel with the string.

Writing
We began our prewrite for our autobiographies. The students should now be on their rough draft.  Please remember, I am sending all published books to Ethiopia Reads, a program that sends books to Ethiopia to fill their libraries. 

We received letters and photos from our Derrick Thomas Academy pen pals. The kids were VERY excited!

Thanks and have a fantastic week! :)