On ELA |
Accelerated ELA |
Social Studies |
We are launching Writers’ Workshop and Readers’ Workshop this year. In Writers’ Workshop, students will begin writing personal narratives in their Writing Notebooks. We will be establishing a well-managed, productive writing workshop, luring children to invest in what will seem like a familiar genre to them, and inducting students into writers’ notebooks and a version of the writing process that is quite different from that which they knew during the primary years. Students will become accustomed to collecting entries in their notebooks, selecting a seed idea, and then taking that seed idea and turning it an amazing true story. Grammar will be built into the writing lessons so that students can use these skills in context.
In Readers’ Workshop, students will begin learning strategies to find books that are just right for their reading level. Students will also learn strategies to help improve their reading comprehension that include making predictions, inferring, connecting, asking and answering questions, and visualizing as they read. Students will build stamina by reading independently each day. By practicing thinking about their reading, students will be able to find deeper meaning in the texts they are reading. We will be using the Words Their Way program for spelling. Students will be given a list of words weekly that they will practice sorting into categories related to spelling patterns. This method of spelling helps students successfully learn the rules of spelling so they can correctly spell words in their writing. |
Reading Workshop:
Novel studies are underway. During novel study (guided), a variety of reading strategies and skills are practiced and developed to strengthen their reading. Students will analyze the characters, setting, dialogue, narration of events to gain a deeper understanding of the text. Vocabulary/Grammar: Our vocabulary development will focus on the application of the context clues strategy by recognizing the meaning of common prefixes, root words, base words, and suffixes. Students will be implementing their knowledge of language by analyzing sentences. Students will identify parts of speech and specific elements recognized. Spelling: Students’ spelling lists will come from the ‘Words Their Way’ program. Students will be introduced to multisyllabic words that have specific spelling patterns or rules that will enhance their writing and reading skills. Writing Workshop: Our first unit for writing, Personal Narratives with independence, is completed. Students have chosen one of their pieces and are in the process of publication. Our next unit for writing will be Informational. |
Our next Social Studies unit will be Economics! We will begin by learning about topographical features and how they influence trade and natural resources. We will move on into comparing goods and services, needs and wants, imports and exports, supply and demand, producers and consumers and three different types of resources (natural, human and capital). We will also learn about budgets, opportunity costs, income and scarcity. Our learning tools will be real life scenarios, identifying how these topics relate to the student’s lives and identifying how our community functions. All the notes can be found in your child’s Social Studies notebook
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