Week of 9/15

Here are a couple of pictures from last week. Click the "Home" button at the top of the page and scroll down to find the post titled, "Civil War Trunk," and you'll see pictures of the kids trying on and playing with items from the trunk!

Dear families,

THANK YOU so much for sending in donations for our 9/11 Service Project! We packed two boxes FULL for Sergeant Julia who is currently in Afghanistan. We had a few things left over, so we decided we'd send her a box at Christmas as well. Hopefully this will be a nice surprise for her. Thank you for being so generous for our first service project!

There is a very important event coming up this Thursday at 6 pm - CAA is hosting a curriculum night to inform parents about what's going on in each grade level. K-2 teachers will present from 5:30 - 6:00. 3-5 teachers will present from 6:00 - 6:30. Many parents have asked for such information, so we hope this will be a well-attended program. If you are interested in the Title I meeting for parents, that will begin at 5:00. There will be a presentation in English in one room a presentation in Spanish in another. 

Let's take a look at what else is going on in class.

Coming Up This Week:

• Mon, 9/15: FALCAN Food Drive Starts
• Tues, 9/16: School Governance Council Meeting at 2:30
• Wed, 9/17: Silly Socks for CURE ($1)
• Thurs, 9/18: Curriculum Night (K-2nd 5:30-6; 3rd-5th 6-6:30)
• Fri, 9/19: Talk Like a Pirate Day; Math Test; Civil War Test; Chick-Fil-A ($2.50)

Coming Up Later This Month: 

• Wed, 9/24: Stuffed Animals/Caps for CURE ($1)
• Thurs, 9/25: Boy Scouts Sign Up
• Tues, 9/30: Service Project Day

Reading/ELA
Standards

• RL.5.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• RI.5.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how a speaker in a poem reflects upon a text; summarize the text.

Activities
We are starting a new "title" for our rotations called Be Excited About Reading! Our rotations will be:
1. Be = Buddy Work 

• Buddy discussions on how characters respond to challenges in the text
• Summarizing a text task cards

2. Excited = Exercise Your Brain (Mrs. Thompson)

• Plot the events in a story

3. About = All by Myself

• Reading choice boards (based on RL.2)

4. Reading = Reading Online

• IXL Language Arts - 4th Grade HH.1 (commas in a series) and HH.4 (commas in direct addresses and after introductory words)

What We're Reading

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• "Homework Hubbub"
• "News Debate: Tough Cell"

What We're Writing

• Opinion about whether or not homework is beneficial
• Opinion about if cell phones should be allowed in schools

English/Language Arts

• Commas (always, all year long!)
• Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Mathematics
Standards

• NBT.1 Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.
• NBT.2 Explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10, and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. Use whole number exponents to denote powers of 10. 

Activities
We are doing similar rotations in math that we are doing in reading. It's called Be Excited About Math! Each day, before we start rotations, we'll have a short whole-group lesson. Then, at the end of each math class, we'll have a quick formative assessment (quiz) or recap what we've learned. Here are our whole group lessons for the week:

• Watch videos from Khan Academy (click HERE to watch the series of videos we'll watch in class)
• Read an article about the Seattle Seahawks NFL stadium and why it's the loudest stadium in the nation; use the decibal scale (which is based on Powers of 10) to answer math questions on NBT.2 
• Comparing the digits in a number based on place value
• Multiplying and dividing by Powers of 10

Here is our rotation work!
Be = Buddy Work

• Multiplying and Dividing Numbers by Power of 10 (whole numbers and decimals)

Excited = Exercise Your Brain (Mrs. Thompson)

• Practice performance tasks for NBT.1 and NBT.2

About = All By Myself

• Math choice boards (based on NBT.4 - rounding decimals, from last unit)

Math = Math Online

• IXL: F.3 (students can work on this at home as well)

Assessment

• THIS Friday: multiple choice, short answer (write the answer), and performance task

Social Studies
Standards
SS5H1 The student will explain the causes, major events, and consequences of the 
Civil War. 

1. Identify  Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin  and  John  Brown’s  raid  on  Harper’s  Ferry, and explain how each of these events was related to the Civil War. 
   
2. Discuss  how  the  issues  of  states’  rights  and  slavery  increased  tensions  between the North and South. 
   
3. Identify major battles and campaigns: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign,  Sherman’s  March  to  the  Sea,  and  Appomattox  Court  House. 
   
4. Describe the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson  Davis,  and  Thomas  “Stonewall”  Jackson. 
   
5. Describe the effects of war on the North and South. 

SS5H2 The student will analyze the effects of Reconstruction on American life. 

1. Describe the purpose of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. 
   
2. Explain  the  work  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau. 
   
3. Explain how slavery was replaced by sharecropping and how African-Americans 
   were prevented from exercising their newly won rights; include a discussion of Jim Crow laws and customs. 

I have created a website with information your student can look over at home to help better prepare him or her for our social studies unit. Click HERE to view this website! To find information for this unit, click the "Civil War" tab at the top.

Essential Questions
Who were the leaders of the Civil War, and how did they affect its outcome?
How did the 5 battles we study shape the war?
How were the North and South affected by the war?
Activities

• Watch history.com videos about Civil War leaders and battles
• Complete a 5Ws chart for leaders and battles
• Create a Civil War map detailing free states and slave states
• Create a Reconstruction foldable about the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments (this is very difficult for students)
13th Amendment = Abolished slavery / 14th Amendment = Gave newly freed slaves citizenship / 15th Amendment = Gave all men the right to vote 

What We're Reading

• Excerpts from the social studies textbook

Assessment

• THIS Friday: multiple choice questions online (Socrative) and 2 essay questions