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| Linda Sue Park visits with Hoover fifth and sixth graders in November |
Hoover Hawks,
I write to you as I type with cold fingertips. The cold "dedos de la mano", as we like to call them here, are chilled from touching the cold, inflated plastic bag from our science demonstration today. The cold bursting bag was the result of an endothermic reaction, which we discussed today, as chemists. I will be doing other science demonstrations to bring some extra excitement into our unit (The Mysterious Powder). The students will be planning their tests for discovering what the mysterious powder contains and then after predicting, will test, using PT, PR, iodine, vinegar, etc.
More on science...
The students are making powerful (or powderful, I should say...) connections, while using indicators that narrow the focuses to acids and bases and other powders, as they observe. It's an exciting unit that we will have until mid January. Since we will soon find out what the mysterious powder is, I will use the remaining time after break to have students research more about the natural elements in our world and other chemistry connections that interest them.
Mathematics
In math, students are exploring strategies for finding equivalent fractions, comparing fractions and using them in story problem situations. Additionally, I have provided several games and packets and daily challenge problems to extend their learning. If your student is struggling with math homework, feel free to use the family letter sent home (at the beginning of each unit), or to email me...so that I can provide support and answer questions.
Language Arts
Novelists are finally finishing their moth long novel projects! Wohoo! After a month of writing while our inner editors remain in their containment cells, letting us write free of judgment, we will soon release them to edit our work. Students will be peer editors and will revise certain excerpts of their novels. Linda Sue Park, a visiting author to Hoover just last month, reminded us that she does more RE-writing than writing - a nice reminder of how so many authors are always tweaking and creating and crafting to mold their pieces into beautiful works of art.
Students are reading a lot of different things right now and I'm proud of students for making these reading experiences part of a reading relationship between them and other readers and the class. For example, students are using reading journals to record their reflections of the sections of their novels that they have picked. They then trade these journal comments with a buddy, who responds to their comments and trades the journals back to begin and continue the conversation. I find this to be an authentic experience full of purpose, as the students have a lot to say and even more desire to say it to someone...someone on their grade level that also is delving into the same text. Every Monday and Thursday, students trade their journals and on Tuesdays or Fridays we often have time to have deeper conversations about the books. Right now the buddy books are:
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Snyder and
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. Students have time to work on their responses in class or at home - depending on how they use their LA independent time.
We also have had time to practice reading strategies and critical thinking while reading HMH texts. This week, we are focusing on a science fiction genre. A lot of our reading also takes place while reading student writing pieces - our novels, this month.
So what is coming up next after this monstrous novel project? I can't begin to have students trek down from the mountain top just yet...I feel we need another project that will highlight student interests over an extended period - so that's where our persuasive essay unit will come in. When students return in January, we will embrace texts and media that deal with current events and use these news topics to devise persuasive essays that defend student opinions. I look forward to students committing to new challenging topics that will guide them to creating arguments that they will nourish to the point of a final project - writing piece, debate, speech, etc. Students will read texts with varying perspectives on subjects that I will introduce and topics that they will also choose themselves. You can look forward to reading persuasive writing pieces by students in the blog in January, as well!
February will be the month for introducing inquiry projects -which will combine the students knowledge of research, persuasive writing and reading a variety of genres, to aid them in answering a question - a single question of their own creation. What is the best way to get rid of poverty in the world? What made the ancient Roman culture so interesting? What's the best way to survive in the jungle? The question creation will be important in and of itself - as it will need to be formed in order to guide students to have enough resources available to them to discover the answer. The answers will be presented in many forms - essays, posters, online presentations, raps, dances, plays or any way that students can communicate their findings in a meaningful way. This will be project that is tied in to many of our science units, math lessons and language arts activities.
Upcoming Events and Important Dates:
December 18th (Tuesday)- Presentation Day for novelists - Remind students this week to bring outfits, as they will be dressing up as their protagonist or antagonist and displaying their novel for other classes.
December 19th (Wednesday) - Last Day of School before the new year and Winter Break parties in classrooms
January 3rd (Thursday) - Back to school- it's 2013!
LAST but not LEAST: Check out the Student Daily Planner - on the links column on the left side of this page, to access each day's tasks.
Have a lovely week!
~Mrs. Ahlers
