11-3-15 This Week in Room 20

Post date: Nov 3, 2015 9:05:32 PM

Dear Families,

Students have begun a new unit incorporating science and social studies. The central idea of our unit is:

• Human cultures develop in response to available resources.

An inquiry into:

• The relationship between settlements and resources (Connection: How is it connected to other things?)
• Motivation for exploration (Causation: Why is it like it is?)
• Impact of exploration (Perspective: What are the points of view?)

Students have begun an island project for the following scenario.

• "You have been stranded on an island. The island has all the resources you would need to survive but no other people. Draw a map of your island with a map key showing all the available resources. Where will you build y our settlement? What will your houses be made of? How will you organize yourselves to build this settlement? Keep a journal of what happens on the island. Your stranded self writes in the journal every 10 days updating your progress. Your first entry is day 1, describe how you came to be stranded on the island and what you did first. write 6 more entries to describe the development of your settlement. "

They are working in groups and very engaged!

Reading: We are beginning a new read-a-loud, Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone. We will begin a unit on historical fiction. Students next independent reading book will be in this genre'.

Writing: We continue to work with narrative writing techniques.

Math: We continue to work with multi-digit multiplication and division with estimation.