January at a Glance

I hope you are all having a spectacular Christmas break!

Your homework for these two weeks is simple:

• Read
• Read
• Read (Don't forget to fill out your reading log.)
• Find three things to represent yourself for our January essay writing.

Coming soon to a classroom near you:

Math:

Continue learning about fractions.  (I want you to remember that the most important skill you take away from this unit is not remembering everything about fractions, but knowing how to find the answer.  Use every resource at your fingertips.  If it's not at your fingertips, reach out and find it!  Being smart does not mean that you've memorized everything.  It means you can solve the problem no matter what)

• Understand what a fraction is and be able to make a model of a fraction.
• Add like and unlike fractions.
• Subtract like and unlike fractions.
• Add and subtract mixed numbers.
• Regroup fractions and whole numbers.
• Simplify fractions by reducing and converting to mixed numbers.

Reading:

We will work on our Reading goals and work on making BIG jumps in our IRLA levels.  There will be a lot of opportunities to read authentic texts.  We will also tackle fables and folk tales.  By the end of January, you should be able to:

• Identify the topic of a composition.
• Explain why an author wrote what they did.
• Identify the main idea of a paragraph.
• Identify unknown words in a text and learn some of those words to use for your own.
• Read for enjoyment:  Find a new story, author or genre to explore.
• Write a book review summarizing the story, connecting it to your own experience, and evaluating it.

Writing:

We will spend a couple of days finishing the story we started in December.  Then we will work on the art of writing an essay.  If you can write a proper essay, everything else in writing will come much more easily.  An essay must have:

• Conventions (the usual:  capitals, punctuation, spelling, etc.)
• An introduction paragraph.
• A thesis statement in your introduction that tells what your essay is about.
• A conclusion paragraph.
• Three main idea paragraphs.
• A topic sentence for each paragraph.

Science:

It's time to finish our study of living things.  There will be some reading assignments.  If you are efficient about the reading and writing, we will have time for actual Science Projects.  We have a  Science Fair coming up this Spring, and there is so much to explore.  By the end of January, you should be able to:

• Use a dichotomous key that you find to identify a life form.
• Classify a life form into at least three categories of the standard taxonomy.
• Describe a life form using advanced Science vocabulary.

Other:

We will create a classroom economy.  Details of this will be posted on the class web page.  I'll be working on this over Christmas break, so come back once in awhile to learn more.  In a nutshell, everybody will have a job, and most classroom activities will have a value.  You earn money for completing jobs.  (Homework is not a job in this economy, sadly.)  Services will cost you money.  For example, you'd earn money for the job of organizing the math supplies.  It will cost money to use the bathroom or pencil sharpener during instruction.

I'd like to get the loom working.  This will take a dedicated person in the weaver job.