What Are We Learning?

Updates for the week of 3/9/20

MINI-ECONOMY!!!

We continue to work on Mini-Economy where the students are going to create businesses and make products to sell for a profit (fake money of course)! Mrs. Bernheart taught a wonderful lead-up lesson on the basis of a Market Economy, and we will now continue this experience in the classroom. The students have applied for jobs, created business plans, and are earning money for the jobs they do around the classroom. They will continue to work with their business partners to determine a timeline so all products are completed by our first Market Day, which is March 20 in our classroom.

Keep in mind the end result of this experience is 2 separate Market Days. Market Day 1 on March 20 is low-key, and in our classroom. The students will buy and sell products within our class to get used to the idea of being an entrepreneur. Our culminating activity will be on Friday, April 3 at 9:30 am when all parents are invited to the Short Pump cafeteria to buy products from the 4th and 5th grade gifted classes. We will of course be using our pretend Market Day currency, and parents will be "earning" money from their children as they assist them at home with their products. These experience is very special, because it allows the students to experience the process of this type of economy as they create, buy, and sell products in the real world! (just with pretend money)

The businesses will be formed in class, but the products will be made at home. THIS SHOULD NOT COST A LOT OF REAL MONEY. Students are encouraged to spend NO actual money when creating their products, but simply be creative and use recyclable materials, and things from around the house. If they must purchase real materials, we ask that each child spends no more than $10.

Let me know if you have any questions!

LANGUAGE ARTS

This week the students will be learning about irony, paradox, and oxymoron, which are some fun literary devices to explore! These are advanced devices that are used as literary contradictions, and make stories and events humorous or unexpected! Kids usually love studying them.

We will be finishing Bull Run this week right in time to start our SS unit on the battles of the Civil War. As a reminder, this novel tells the story of 16 different people that are involved in the battle of Bull Run (the first major battle of the Civil War), and allows the students to see different perspectives on the battle from both the Northern side (Union), and the Southern side (Confederacy). The kids are enjoying how we are tying Social Studies into Language Arts! Though the battle of Bull Run is just one of many that we discuss, the students now have a new perspective of how people felt before the war, vs. after experiencing an actual battle. Ask them to tell you about the wealthy people who enjoyed a fancy picnic while watching the battle unfold...this helps us realize how people severely underestimated the length and severity of not only this battle, but the Civil War itself as the people having a picnic thought the Union would easily crush the Confederacy in a short amount of time.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We just finished our unit leading up to the Civil War and we will now discuss major battles of the War. Key battles discussed: Battle of Bull Run aka Battle of Manassas, Battle of Hampton Roads, Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Richmond. We will also discuss key people involved including Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and Abraham Lincoln.