T2 Week 7-10 Month of January

What's happening this month

Writing:
We are starting a new unit on persuasive personal narratives. The students will produce an essay outlining a statement and then reasons and evidence to back up their statement.

They should:

• Pick a topic that matters to them
• make a statement
• back it up with 3 ideas
• give several examples to support their ideas
• include a catchy opening paragraph with the statement and 3 reasons
• include a closing paragraph with statement and 3 reasons
• use essay words
• use a convincing voice
• Each paragraph should mention the statement again

Reading:

This month we will be looking at 'Determining Importance'.

The students will know:

• how to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction
• how to identify important ideas
• how to recognize and use "self-talk"
• the difference between retelling, summarizing and finding the gist
• how to use text features to identify importance in nonfiction texts

In addition to this, I will continue reading with the class in their guided reading groups.

Social Studies:

Out new unit in Social Studies is 'Beliefs'.
These are the essential questions we will be looking at:

• What are beliefs?
• Why are beliefs important?
• Why do people have different beliefs?
• Why do some beliefs change over time?

By the end of this unit, the students will know:

• that a belief is a firmly held opinion
• that people have different beliefs
• that beliefs support a sense of community
• that beliefs and culture are interconnected
• that beliefs provide a sense of belonging and purpose
• that beliefs help to explain life/origins
• that beliefs differ depending on many factors (i.e. physical surroundings, resources, needs, time, etc.)
• that beliefs can change over time for a variety of reasons (i.e. scientific discovery, outside influences, age, moving to a new location, exposure to different beliefs, etc.

We will be looking at the life of Rosa Parks and the Australian aboriginal people to discover and compare their beliefs and how their actions and life were effected by their beliefs.

Mathematics:

Our next unit in maths is further exploring Multiplication and Division.

The students will be taught:

• To understand multiplication
• To understand division
• To understand how multiples can be graphed
• To understand the relationship between the number of sides of a regular figure and its perimeter

Please see changes in the spelling homework for this term on the homework section.

Thank you and Have a great January!

Mrs Wilcox