Week of February 6-10

Hello Families!

We had a busy week in the classroom as we continued building more fluency with our multiplication facts, researching and writing our second informational articles, and doing loads of art! We will be starting our Geography Unit this week and your child should bring a map to school tomorrow, if possible.  We will begin using the maps later this week.  Also, I will be introducing the important person project to the students this week, so please begin discussing ideas with your child if you haven't already. (See last week's post for more information.)  

LITERACY

This week we read Wings, by Christopher Myers.

                                                          

This is the first story in our Unit 4 Theme: One of a Kind.  It is a modern interpretation of a story in Greek Mythology about Icarus.  The original story was about a boy whose father bestowed wings upon him so he could escape peril. This modern version is about a boy, also named Ikarus, and whom also has wings, although this boy's journey is a journey inward, where he faces criticism for being different. He eventually rises above the torment when he is praised for his unique beauty and difference. 

The setting of the story is a school and the plot of the story is that he is different from the other kids, and because of that, he is shunned; despite having the extraordinary ability to fly! 

The story is narrated by a school girl who, throughout, relates with Ikarus.  We learn through her narration that she too feels different, and is often shunned by the other students.   She feels a kindred connection to Ikarus and shows him kindness during his time of sadness.  As a result, Ikarus finds the courage to fly with pride, unaffected by the on-looking eyes of the other school children.

This story gave us the opportunity to look closely at cause and effect relationships as well as, compare and contrast.  

                 

Here are the text-dependent questions the students were expected to answer this week.

1. Ikarus is a boy with wings.  Using evidence from the text describe three things that resulted from him being different from other children.
              
                                                            

2. Reread paragraph two on page 21.  How was Ikarus feeling?  Give two examples from the text that show readers how Ikarus was feeling?

         

3.  Reread the first paragraph on page 18. Then reread the first paragraph on page 24. How is Ikarus different? How and why has he changed?  Give at least two examples from the text.

4.  On page 18 the narrator compared herself to Ikarus.  She continued to compare herself throughout the text.  Give two examples of how they were similar. 

READER'S WORKSHOP

            

CHARACTER PORTRAITS

on book pages

While some students finished their Character Portraits, based on evidence from the text, other students began thinking about applying this concept to studying a change in a character.  

They will again be asked to locate pages in their book that show a character's personality trait, but this time they will pay attention to how their personality changes throughout the story.  They will be expected to identify the character's trait in the beginning and the end of the story, using evidence from the text to support their thinking.  First, they will locate the evidence and create a before and after character portrait like the ones above.  Then, they will be expected to turn that information into a short essay.  

The students also practiced identifying cause and effect relationships in their reading this week.

 Finally, students once again practiced their summary writing skills.

To help stretch this skill to the next level, we discussed two levels of summary writing.                        

Level 1 Summary Character Setting Beginning event Middle event End event Transition Words (Who, What, When, Where)

Level 2 Summary Adds Why the main events are taking place              (elaborate)

WRITING

We continued working on our second informational articles. Students are at various stages of the writing process and some may need to bring their research or articles home this week to work on.  

We will try to finish these up in the next week or two.  Meanwhile, we will begin reading our biography books in class during Reader's Workshop on Wednesday, February 22.

WHICH IMPORTANT PERSON DOES YOUR CHILD

 WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT?

All students are expected to have their book in class by Tuesday, February 21.   Please help your child locate an at-level book.  Last week's post had many suggestions.  Please don't hesitate to ask if you need help.

MATH

We continued to work on our fluency with multiplication facts and strategies this week. We colored in the next level of multiplication facts on our chart.

Students also learned how to complete factor towers, which are helpful for seeing all of the multiplication facts that have the same answer. 

While learning this new method, students were also introduced to the terms product, factor, and factor pairs. 

To build fluency we also created a flip chart in our math journal listing multiples.

The students then paired up to practice reciting their multiples (skip-counting) with and without looking at their flip chart.

The "seeing", "hearing", and "saying" will help promote memorization of the associated multiplication facts.


Students also played a math workplace game called "Cover Up" which provides practice with representing multiplication as an array. 

They used a spinner to determine the two factors they were multiplying, as well as the dimensions they were drawing.

Students had a fun time competing with one another to see who could get closest to 100!

Please continue to encourage your student to practice their multiplication flashcards!

Timed tests are frequent and on-going!

ART

This week I created some extra time for art.  We finished up our Science unit a week ago, and are beginning a new Geography unit this coming week, so last week, in place of our unit studies, we did some art almost everyday!

On Monday, we completed an art activity employing the concept of positive and negative space.  Our subject matter utilized the upcoming Valentine's Day imagery of the heart.  

Students began with half of a heart and then designed shapes that would be cut out and reflected the other direction.  

The resulting image has reversed positive and negative spaces.  

Each student chose a different high contrast color to go on their black background.

They turned out great!

On Tuesday we decorated our Valentine's Day Bags.

                         PARENT LED ART

On Wednesday we had another Parent Led Art session. Once again we used the works of Faith Ringgold to inspire our art-making.  

We watched a short video clip of the artist talking about her work, and we based our project on one of her famous images pictured below.

Much like this image, each student created a work of art that pictures themselves flying over their neighborhood.  

Much like Faith Ringgold's original image, the students are pictured flying over a bridge as well. The students were provided with images of both the Sellwood and Ross Island Bridge to look at while painting their bridge.   

Thank you Caitlin and Kelli for helping out with this art lesson.  

On Friday we finished up our "Winter Bird on a Wire" art.  We completed the larger version of this art project.  The smaller version will be assembled soon and go up for auction next month. The students applied their birds and wire to their mosaic background and then added the final touches of puffy white paint for the snow.  

Some students chose to add falling snow to their sky.  They look fantastic!

We have an exciting week ahead as we look forward to our Valentine's Day Party on Tuesday, and welcoming Emile to our class on Thursday!   The class can't wait to meet him.

IMPORTANT DATES

February 14- Valentine's Day Party 1:00-2:00

February 15- Medical Exclusion Day

February 20- NO SCHOOL- President's Day