Math: Fractions

Last week we started some work with fractions! For many kids that word, "fractions" brings with it some scary and intimidating connotations. Many students just don't feel like they are "good at fractions". Most of our work during 2nd quarter revolves around fractions, comparing, ordering, converting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing! Because having a solid base knowledge and building confidence are very important, we will spend a few days reviewing basic fraction concepts, including vocabulary of fractions, unit fractions and finding fractional parts of a whole. For some, this may have felt like a slow process, but we promise challenge to come! We just need to make sure everyone gets started in a good spot.  

Social Studies: The New England, Middle and Southern Colonies

 In Chapter 7 of Social Studies Alive we studied the three colonial regions, New England, Middle and Southern Colonies. Students worked on a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, students created a billboard for one of six British colonies and then tried to persuade other students to settle in their colony with a commercial.
     They all worked hard on coming up with slogans, catch phrases, billboards and presentations. Here are pictures of their finished billboards. 

Reading Literature and Information R.5.2

Our reading focus for second quarter is around Reading Standard 2: Use and identify details in a text in order to summarize and determine the theme or main idea of a text. We have been using the text "Eaglesmount: Silverhorn" to practice this work. Here is the process we are using to meet this standard.

We began this work by identifying important details in a text. We used a color code to help us easily see the character, setting, event, problem and solution information we identified.

Then we worked as groups to write a summary using the information we identified.

While doing this work we have also done some work with vocabulary - recognizing important or unfamiliar words, using the context clues within the text to help us understand, and finding the definition in the dictionary (either online or in print).

Next week we will be doing more work around theme, starting with a teacher model. We will go more indepth with Step 4 from our Process Anchor Chart, helping us more independent in our work of identifying the theme of a text. 

We will be doing similar work during writing to help us with the informational side of this standard. More to come on that!

Chance to get UW Women's basketball tickets!

Use the following link to find out how...

Badgers Give Back

Skeleton Symmetry

We had a little wacky fun in math this week using our knowledge of symmetry to make some spooky, goofy, fun-loving skeletons!

Book recommendations, all available on Overdrive

I had quite a few parents ask me for book recommendations at conferences.  So I compiled a list of books that I've enjoyed that are available on the school's Overdrive library. This can be accessed by all students on the Randall Library Portal.  Have fun reading! 

Title	Author
Moon Over Manifest	Vanderpool
Anne of Green Gables	Montgomery
When You Reach Me	Stead (also other titles by this author)
Frindle	Clements (also other titles by this author)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler	Koningsburg
Three Times Lucky	Turnage (has sequels)
Because of Mr. Terupt	Bugea (has sequels)
The Candymakers	Mass
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry	Taylor (also other titles by this author) (has sequels)
Brown Girl Dreaming	Woodson (also other titles by this author)
Dead End at Norvelt	Gantos (has sequel)
Fever 1793	Anderson
The Mighty Miss Malone Bud, Not Buddy	Curtis (also other titles by this author)
Kira Kira	Kadohata
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	Baum
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Because of Winn-Dixie Tiger Rising	DiCamillo
Spy School	Gibbs (also other titles by this author)
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library	Grabenstein
Liar, Liar Hatchet	Paulsen (also other titles by this author)
Fish in a Tree	Hunt
Who is or was…..	This is a series that has many authors b/ it is a set of biographies.
One Crazy Summer	Williams-Garcia (also other titles by this author) (has sequels)
Counting by 7s	Sloan
The Evolution of Culpernia Tate	Kelly
Bridge to Terabithia	Paterson
Tuck Everlasting	Babbitt
Lily’s Crossing	Giff (also other titles by this author)
Bloomability Ruby Holler	Creech (also other titles by this author)
Sarah, Plain and Tall	MacLachlan (has sequels)
Hoot	Hiaasen (also other titles by this author)
Where the Red Fern Grows	Rawls
Al Capone Does My Shirts	Choldenko (has sequels)
Becoming Naomi Leon	Ryan (also other titles by this author)
The City of Ember	DuPrau (has sequels)
On My Honor	Bauer
The Lemonade War	Davies (has sequels)
Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things	Look  (has sequels)
The Name of This Book is Secret	Bosch (has sequels)
Small Steps	Kehret
Inside Out & Back Again	Lai
A Single Shard A Long Walk to Water	Park
Fair Weather The River Between Us A Long Way from Chicago On the Wings of Heroes	Peck (also other titles by this author)
Belle Prater’s Boy	White
A Dog’s Life	Martin (also other titles by this author)
The Scavengers	Perry
So Far from the Bamboo Grove	Watkins
A Night Divided	Nielsen
The Giver	Lowry (has sequels)