Friday, Feb. 8, 2013

Upcoming Dates
Feb. 12 - Math Benchmark
Feb. 13 - Reading Benchmark
Feb. 14 - Valentine's Day Party
Feb. 15 - Vocabulary Test Lesson 10

Writing
We took a practice Writing STAAR test, and the students have been receiving their scores for the Narrative papers. We have been discussing ways for the students to make their papers better, and then the students are working on a copy of the original paper to make changes.  We have also looked at the editing and revision portion of the test. This part tests the students over revising and editing skills.  The students have to read a story and make changes in it.  Then, they have to answer revising and editing multiple choice questions about it.

Reading
We have been reading paired texts and comparing and contrasting them.  For example,  we read a nonfiction story about plant hunters and then we read a fiction story about aliens. We talked about the similarities and differences about how the stories were written and the characteristics of each.  The students are working in book clubs with a fiction book.  They completed an activity comparing and contrasting themselves with a character from the book. 

Math
We have learned about temperature and the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.  We have moved into measurement and we have studied mass and weight and the difference between the two.  The students learned how to convert between different amounts of measurements as well.  For example, 48oz.= ___lbs.

Science
We have finished presenting our States of Matter projects.  We talked about density and the students participated in a Coke/Diet Coke experiment. Which one floated and why? Ask your child about these.

Social Studies
The students created their own newspaper for the time of 1800s. Each student had to create a title and date for the newspaper that depicted the time period.  Then, he/she had to think of questions that they would want to ask for an interview, for one of the people during this time, and then using what has been learned about the person, create answers that the person would possibly say to the questions. Next, each student created 2 advertisements and a current event, all that could be during the 1800s. On the back, a picture was drawn and a letter written to Stephen F. Austin persuading him to let them come to his colony.