Our week in learning

As our school year begins, I would like to thank all the parents and students who attended and brought supplies to Meet the Teacher Night. I enjoyed meeting and talking to all of you. For those who could not make it, I look forward to getting to know your child. On the first day of school, we will review the class policies and procedures. Please read this document with your child and send back the final page with your signatures.

This week in Math, students will start by taking an assessment to determine concepts that may have slipped over the summer that need extra attention. Their first unit will officially start on Wednesday with large numbers, up to 100 billion. This will include writing these numbers in words and saying these numbers correctly. Weekly Math Groups will begin later in the quarter.

This week in Language Arts, students will take a diagnostic grammar assessment to determine areas of strength or areas in need of review from fourth grade grammar. Over the next few weeks, they will review basic grammar material starting with the five parts of a sentence and punctuation and capitalization rules. Next week, students will have their first quiz over capitalization and punctuation rules.

In Literature, students will spend a short time recalling and summarizing Prince Caspian in anticipation of our first literary adventure, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Students should bring this in by Wednesday of this week. As we read throughout the first quarter, we will focus on building our vocabulary and strengthening our summarizing skills.

This week in History, students will learn about the continents, oceans, longitude, and latitude during their weekly World Geography unit. Students will have a quiz on Thursday, August 10th on the location of the continents and oceans. Throughout quarters 1 and 2, students will learn about geography on Wednesdays. Students will also start their first unit in the history books: World Lakes, beginning with the lakes of South America, Africa, and Eurasia. Students should expect short quizzes on the locations of the lakes in each of these continents.

In Science this week, students will be learning about Scientific Inquiry through hands-on learning and analyzing informational texts. Students will learn about making hypotheses and will complete their first lab - Wet Pennies - a fun and engaging activity that will integrate math skills including calculating averages and making bar graphs.