Individual Reading: Students are reading self-selected novels, taking AR tests on them, and working on building comprehension and vocabulary by doing "everything sheets" based on them (at least 5 per week).  I try to conference with students as often as I can to help them set yearly and weekly goals and to check in on how they are doing on keeping up on their daily "everything sheets".

 

Read Aloud: We are continuing J.R.R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Rings as our class read aloud book.  We are practicing notetaking skills to prepare for daily quizzes, which focus on character, plot and setting.

 

Vocabulary: We have added a new vocabulary curriculum based on latin prefixes.  Each week the vocabulary list will be given out on Monday, the students write the words and definitions five times for Tuesday, draw sketches and explain how the sketch shows the meaning of the word for Wednesday, use each word correctly in a sentence to show they understand its meaning for Thursday and take a quiz on Friday.

 

Math: We are focusing in math on building measurement skills this month in both metric and english.  We continue to do five new kinds of problems each week.  Monday through Thursday mornings students work collaborativey.  If a student gets less than 70% they are required to take the math journal home at night and fix the ones they missed on an attached sheet of paper and turn it in the next day.  On Friday of each week we take a quiz and students work on it by themselves and it is weighted more heavily (30 points per quiz as opposed to 10 on a daily math journal).

 

Writing: We just took a short break from the Social Studies book to do research reports on explorers such as Da Gama and Marco Polo.  These are now finished.  Next up, we are going to be working on a paper for Thanksgiving which students can take home and share with their families over the Thanksgiving Break. 

 

Next week we will also return to the Social Studies book and continue to cover about 4 to 5 pages of social studies each day and students are required to take Cornell Notes on these pages.  Then, they answer the review questions at the end of the section to show that they comprehend what the reading was about.  When we finish the chapter, students do a chapter review and then we take a chapter test.