Reading
Our focus question in reading was, What do good citizens do? We read two narrative nonfiction biographies, Elizabeth Leads the Way and Susan B. Anthony Takes Action. The two stories helped us compare Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but more importantly, we understand the parallels in their desire to join forces to impact the future of women's rights. While reading the stories, we also examined the text structure, cause and effect. This refers to cause as the reason why something happened. An effect is the result or what happened. When readers identify cause and effect, they understand how events are connected.
Writing
We are writing our draft for our narrative based on the book, The Best Part of Me.
During this writing piece, the kids focused on using descriptive language to explain why the specific body part is their best physical feature. We also spent a significant amount of varying our sentences to include simple, compound, and complex sentences. this helps with our writing flow instead of sounding like a grocery list.
Fundations
This week, we began understanding open-syllable exceptions in unstressed or unaccented syllables. For example, a schwa is an (unexpected) unaccented vowel sound, usually a, at the beginning or end of the word, as in ago, extra, and i in the middle syllable, followed by a consonant, as in compliment.
Math
This past week, we reviewed what we learned about area and perimeter before CMAS. We will do the same with geometry on Monday and possibly Tuesday. We will test on Tuesday or Wednesday based on our understanding and application of skills.
Science
We began learning about force. The kids completed two investigations (zoomers and tops) and discovered that force is just a fancy word for pushing or pulling. If I push or pull on something, I apply force. Force makes things move or, more accurately, makes things change their motion.
Two natural forces are gravity and magnetism. These two forces act at a distance and do not require direct contact between the objects to function. Gravity produces a force that pulls objects toward each other, like a person toward the ground. It is the force that keeps the Earth revolving around the sun and pulls you toward the ground when you trip.
Pack PRIDE
During our Pack PRIDE lessons, we discussed fairness and discrimination. When people express discrimination, they judge others on an outward appearance or some other quality. People think that discrimination is only based on a person's race or skin color. That is just one form of discrimination. It can be due to different characteristics such as physical or mental disability, age, gender, religion, and economic status (where someone lives or how much money they have). This judgment results in people mistreating others. We must be aware of how we treat ourselves and others, as it is vital in developing respect. When you judge others, try to shift your thinking to show compassion instead. As Superman says, " With great power comes great responsibility."