Curriculum Update October 11, 2018

Science

We have been exploring the different types of rocks. These include igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The class has also been learning about the rock cycle.

The class has also been inquiring into the properties of minerals. We have been testing the hardness, transparency and other observable properties.

Please click on the link Rocks & Minerals to access suggestions of books, websites, and short videos.

Language Arts

Students have been immersed in nonfiction in both reading and writing. This unit is wonderfully integrated, allowing students to build strong connections between literacy skills.

As readers, students are acquiring strategies to comprehend the main idea and supporting details for a nonfiction text.  Students are learning to stop after reading a chunk of text to talk about or record the subtopic and important facts. They have used “boxes and bullets” to organize their thinking. Students have enjoyed reading nonfiction texts about rocks and minerals, our science unit topic.

As writers, students are considering nonfiction text structures to organize their pieces. Students used their hands to plan! They thought about the main idea being at the center, on their palm, and the facts and details making up the fingers. Student-authors also used “boxes and bullets” again; this time it was an idea organizer for each chapter of their nonfiction book.

Math

Linear Measures and Area

In the next weeks, children will develop their measurement sense by measuring lengths with standard units—in both the U.S. customary system and the metric system. Children will practice reading a ruler to the nearest inch, nearest _ 1 2 inches, nearest _ 1 4 inches, and nearest centimeter as they measure a variety of objects, including parts of their own bodies, such as their hand spans, wrists, necks, and heights.

Children will also discover the meaning of area by tiling small rectangles with blocks and counting how many blocks cover the rectangles. Children see how to calculate area by tiling larger surfaces, such as tabletops and floors, with square feet and square yards. In the last part of this unit, children will explore the circumference and diameter of circles. They will learn the about 3 times rule—that the circumference of a circle is a little more than 3 times the length of its diameter.