This week, we will explore the question, "What are the positivesl and negative effects of new technology?" We will be reading argumentative text that tells us about the pros and cons of video games, explores whether technology is good or bad, and learn about robots and driverless cars.   We will be working on identifying Author's Claim and using text features to help support the main idea.

Our expository essays on "Why Cell Phones are Important" are nearly finished!  This week, we focused on creating reader-grabbing hooks by using onomotopoeia, interesting facts, question asking and/or quotes.  We also learned about creating bridging sentences from our hooks to our claim sentences so that our text flows smoothly.  We are hoping to work on conclusions and editing this week and planning our Publishing Party for Friday!

Topic 3 continued this week with multi-digit multiplication.  The kids seem to have a good grasp on the standard algorithm (old-fashioned way) of solving these problems.  Now, we put our knowledge into play by using multiplication of multi-digit numbers in real-world problem solving.  Our Topic Test will be on Wednesday, September 27th.

Continuing our "Web of Life" unit in science, we have moved on to food chains.  We played a fun card game where the students had to match up different plants and animals and make food chains as long as possible.  This was challenging!  We also spent time on a fun Animal Food Chain art project that you can look for in our hallway when you come in for conferences in a few weeks!