Mrs. Westdyke’s Class
LANGUAGE ARTS: As of Monday, students should be done reading their Literature Circle books: Loser or Number the Stars. During class this week, students will complete one individual project related to the book, and one small group project related to the book. Additionally, all students should have selected an individual novel for use on a semester project. Students will use their individual novel to complete a Tic-Tac-Toe assignment. This project will be completed at home. I will post this to my website this week. A printed copy has also been distributed to each student. As noted on my calendar, students should complete the reading of this book by October 20th. That will give them one week to complete the Tic-Tac-Toe project, which is due October 27th. I have selected this date because it is before the earliest classes leave for Keystone Science School. Note that the end of the first trimester is November 14th, and I am also leaving time during November for students to work on their Theme projects.
MATH: We will continue to learn about the properties of multiplication. We will also review estimation of products and quotients in Lesson 1.7. Our first test is scheduled for October 16th. The test will cover all of the topics we have reviewed in Chapter 1. We will continue to practice with problem solving skills through daily Warm-Up activities. During class on Wednesday, we will work on our next Math Mystery puzzle. Students will work cooperatively in small groups to solve a puzzle using their collective math skills. Students will have homework on Monday night this week. Due to the short week with parent-teacher-student conferences, I will not introduce Lesson 1.8 this week.
THEME: We have spent the past month focusing our learning on topics related to geology and the Earth. Students have become experts in talking about the layers of the Earth, plate tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, and rocks. This week we have the pleasure of working with a set of rocks, minerals and fossils on loan to Stargate from the Colorado School of Mines. On Monday, students will finalize a ten-item Geology portfolio containing many activities and projects we have worked on in class. These will be available for parent perusal at parent-teacher-students conferences later this week. We will also continue to learn about another key content area for the trimester – the ancient Maya. We will learn about their geography, culture, religion, art, architecture, food, clothing, games, recreation, and language, as well as other topics.