Take a Peek at Our Week!

We had a great week back to school! I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable winter break (and didn't blow away in the wind storm!!). In language & literature, we continued our work with analyzing argument texts. This week, students worked on evaluating the strength of an author's claim by identifying strong and weak points presented through the evidence. This will also carryover into our work during writing as students research and select supporting evidence for their chocolate milk essays!

In writing, we've become more comfortable referring to our argument writing rubrics to keep track of the expectations related to our organization, development, and language. We have already identified several skills that we can already do after our informational writing unit (this gives us a lot of confidence as we enter a new genre!).  Students identified that elaboration and using a variety of transitions are still areas needing growth, but we are working hard towards those goals! This week worked on our conclusion paragraphs for our first argument essays. We focused in on the "final thoughts" portion of the paragraph working to make this piece memorable for the reader. We discussed how the final thoughts are the author's last chance to convince the reader and pull them in the direction of the author's claim. The students did an awesome job...you'll be able to view their progress on Google Classroom-Argument Writing.

Just before break, we discussed the branches of government in individuals & society using our jigsaw strategy. Students were given one branch of government to research and were responsible for reporting out and teaching their group members. Next, we will be learning about balance of power and how our laws are made!!

This week we began our second round of WIN! As you can remember, WIN stands for "what I need". The fifth grade teachers meet prior to each round and place students in groups across the grade level in order to receive extra practice, reinforcement, or extension of skills. Students loved our last round because they were able to work with different fifth grade teachers during our morning block (8:40-9:15). Your child should have brought home a goal sheet from their WIN teacher indicating who they will be working with and the focus of the group (ELA, math, both). Discuss WIN time with your child this weekend and ask how it helped them last round!


Have a wonderful weekend!! :-)