Our week in learning 1/22

We are already into the third week of the quarter! Thank you to those of you who have signed up to volunteer for math groups and athletic field day. There are still spots available if you would like to sign up for a math group this upcoming Wednesday, 1/24.

In language arts, students will begin the week with a lesson on appropriate ways to use 
quotations in their research essays. On Tuesday, they will begin a simple sentence outline 
of their essays, and on Thursday and Friday, they will begin writing their body paragraphs. 
We will compose most of the first body paragraph together in class on Thursday. On Friday, 
we will spend the period composing the second body paragraph--students will complete the 
third body paragraph for homework over the weekend. Next week, students will compose
 their introduction and conclusion, rough draft, and final draft.

Students will read through chapter 14 of The Secret Garden and continue adding to their 
character charts and journal entries. Journal entries are assigned every chapter or every 
other chapter, and are expected to be a full paragraph in length (5-9 sentences). Entries 1-10 
will be collected for a complete grade on Friday, and should be neat, showing good effort, with 
complete sentences and thoughtful answers. 

In science this week, students will finish researching their vascular or nonvascular plant and 
present their research to the class on either Tuesday or Thursday. Each student will be graded 
separately on his/her presentation, and a group grade will be given for the worksheet presented 
to the class. All students are required to take notes on each of the presentations, as some of this 
information will be on the unit test. On Friday, we will learn about plant life cycles.

This week in history, students will continue to learn about the age of exploration. We will 
cover the English, French, and Dutch explorers. Please note that we will be covering the 
slavery chapter and the middle passage later on Friday this week. This is sensitive material 
and students should have a discussion at home if needed. Study guides will go home on 
Monday, January 22nd and are due Monday, January 29th. The Age of Exploration test will 
be on Tuesday, January 31st. 

In math this week, we will continue learning about decimals. Students will be dividing 
decimals, changing fractions to decimals using long division, and multiply and divide 
decimals by 10’s, 100’s, and 1000’s. Graph paper is very helpful to line up decimals and 
keep their work organized. We will be using some in class, but it might be useful to have 
some at home to use with homework. Math groups will resume this Wednesday, January 
24th, 8:00-9:00.