This past month, we have been learning about Southwest Asia.  It’s known as the Middle East today, but it used to be home to the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, and the world’s first civilization: Sumer.  Empire Mania began in that region with the takeover of Sumer and the formation of the world’s first empire by the Akkadians and their King Sargon.  Many groups took control and formed their own empires there over the years.  Next was the Ammorites, followed by Hammurabi and his Babylonian law codes.  The region was then dominated by the Hittites’ and their iron weapons and the Phoenicians with their sailing and trade skills.  There was even an Empire Strikes Back revenge/love story plot when Hammurabi’s descendants, led by Nabopolasar, took back control of the region, rebuilt Babylon, and then Nebuchadnezzar created the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  This didn’t last too long though as the Assyrians, led by Ashurbanipal, destroyed everything and built a famous library.  Our saga ended with the Persians becoming the next big bad boys on the block.  That is until they wasted a lot of resources attacking the Greeks, and Alexander the Great from Macedonia, and his mostly Greek army, flexed their muscles onto the scene.  Going forward, we will be learning about the history of many major world religions. 

In ELA, we continued with our read-aloud of Brave Like That by Lindsey Stoddard.  We have enjoyed discussing key characters and events in the story.  As we approach the novel's end, we will continue our work with thematic statements by creating thematic statements for this story.

Another area we continue to work on is text-dependent analysis essays.  In early January students worked through adding analysis to textual evidence with a story from our class magazine.  Now, students are working on full essays based on a short story titled, “On Sea Turtle Patrol” by Nancy Dawson.  This is a great opportunity to practice developing an essay based on textual evidence from a story. 

In Mrs. Roesnberger’s class, students are tackling unit rates and conversions! These skills, often glossed over as mere formulas, are proving surprisingly practical. Imagine whipping up cookies with only a metric cup? Unit rates come to the rescue, helping convert recipe ounces to grams. Being able to convert between customary and metric units can help students calculate distances on a map or diagram, find measurements when building something, and solve real world problems. So, while mastering fractions might seem dry, it's actually paving the way for future scientists, savvy shoppers, and adventurous explorers. Stay tuned for more on how our students are conquering conversions!