Week of

MSTEP: We only have the Social Studies MSTEP left this week on Tuesday.

 

Homework:  "Homework 8-1 and 8-2" the evens and #12 on both.

MATH: 

  We have been learning metric units of measure. This coming week we will change to customary units.
If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!  

WRITING:  

  Students wrote captions last week. I created a digital flipbook out of these that I will share to you. I need to fix a couple mistakes up first.
Right now we are in the process of writing poetry. We will have a poetry brunch on May 4th which you are all invited to!

READING:

  We have read some nonfiction articles about the Revolutionary War which is what they are studying in Social Studies. We just began our genre unit with the theme of "Making Choices" Our novel we began last week is "The Fighting Ground" which details the experience of a 13 year old boy who wants to go to war and his experience over a 24 hour period.

 

SCIENCE:

After spring break we did a STEM activity where students were given materials and worked in groups to create a strong bag. They designed, tested, redesigned, and tested again. They decided that a good handle is just as important as having the bottom of the bag be strong!

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

MATH: 

  We will have our math test over our division unit on Tuesday. We will then move onto our algebra unit.
If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!

 

WRITING:  

  Speeches have been great!! Next week students will read about an animal that is extinct or endangered and create an interactive Infographic.

READING:

  We read an article about the Revolutionary War and factors that caused colonists to take big risks leaving England and later decide to go to war. We also read about a slave who risked his life in order to become free. We discussed and wrote about reasons for taking these risks.

 

SCIENCE:

We have been doing some geometry and measurement in science this past week.

Word Work: 
Next week's spelling skill is possessive nouns.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

MATH: 

  We have been learning to divide 3 & 4 digit whole number and decimal dividends by 2 & 3 digit decimal divisors. As always, we have been doing a lot of looking at what this concept looks like conceptually not just going through the motions. This way students are able to problem solve.
If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!

 

WRITING:  

  Students are finishing their persuasive speeches for Fruit or Vegetable of the Year! They are having fun with this and enjoying creating their slogans and making campaign posters. They will present the speeches and vote on fruit or vegetable of the year either Wednesday or Thursday. Students may bring in their fruit or vegetable to show the class as a prop and dress the part, by wearing the color of their fruit/vegetable.

READING:

    Since February was Black History Month, we read Ruby Bridges and watched the movie. We also read two picture books about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. We had some discussions & activities centered on the themes. Last week we read an article about the Revolutionary War with excerpts from a teen soldier. Next week we will continue our work with nonfiction texts and continuing our work on strategies for summarizing, comprehension, vocabulary growth, cause/effect, text structure, and compare/contrast.

 

SCIENCE:

We have done some work with nutrition looking at labels to see how much sugar is in a product. The we used sugar cubes as a representation of how much sugar. Did you know some flavored  oatmeals have the same amount of sugar as 10 sugar cubes? Apple juice can be like having 7 sugar cubes!

Word Work: 
We reviewed suffixes last week. This week we will study homographs.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:    

Math: Remembering 5-3 ALL

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

  We have been learning different strategies for dividing 4 digit dividends by 2 digit divisors. This can be quite frustrating for kids at first, but they are getting the hang of it!    We are always reviewing past material in class and through the Remembering pages that come home as homework and reviewed in class.
If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!

 

WRITING:  

  Next week we will begin a persuasive piece where they will choose a fruit or vegetable to research and write a persuasive speech from the fruit/veggie's perspective. They will present the speeches and vote on fruit or vegetable of the year.

READING:

   We completed our genre unit book Sign of the Beaver. The assessment came home on Thursday. We will be doing a variety of nonfiction pieces and working on comprehension strategies for the next few weeks.

SCIENCE:

Student groups are creating projects that show what they know about the objects in our sky and how sailors from long ago could use them to navigate. We will also have a short assessment on Tuesday. Over this unit.

Word Work: 
We have been working on commas rules. Our spelling test this week was rules for adding suffixes to base words.

Week of Feb. 5th - 8th

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:    

Math: Page 32 is due Monday

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

  This coming week we will begin our Dividing Whole Numbers and Fractions Unit. We are always reviewing past material in class and through the Remembering pages that come home as homework.
If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!

 

WRITING:  

  Students are completing their magazine articles and sharing them this week.

READING:

   We completed our genre unit book Sign of the Beaver. They wanted there to be a second book! :) Thursday we watched the movie. The kids were amazed at how drastically different the movie and book were and we had a great discussion about that.

SCIENCE:

We have been investigating the constellations and how the fact that we see different constellations each seasons is more proof that the Earth is rotating while revolving around the Sun.

Week of January 22nd

CONFERENCES ARE FEB. 5TH AND FEB 7TH.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:    

Math: Homework Lesson 4-7 due Monday

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

  This week we moved into learning how the digits shift places to the right to get a smaller number when multiplying decimals. We related decimals to fractions and used 100'd grids to draw what decimals numbers look like, and related it to money. We are trying to remember to think about what makes sense- will our answer be larger or smaller than a factor and does the answer we get makes sense before moving on to the next question.

 If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!!

WRITING:  

  Students are choosing a topic to research, writing notes on a planning page, and will then draft a magazine-style article on google docs with related photos and links.

READING:

   We began our new genre unit, Sign of the Beaver. We have been reading as a class so far and working on comprehension and vocabulary strategies.

SCIENCE:

We have been investigating what makes day and night by observing shadows, viewing some video clips of the movement of the sun and Earth, and made a sky viewer model the movement. We now the sun does NOT move and that the rotation of Earth and it's turning away from the sun is what causes night and day. We are moving into investigating why we have seasons. 

 

Week of January 15-19

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/  
 

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Some students need to finish 4-5. Everyone has lesson 4-4 - all.

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

  We began our Multiplying Whole Numbers & Decimals unit. Students have already had a lot of practice multiplying using various methods and we will add in using the decimals this week. We are reviewing past decimal concepts as well. Last week students took an interim assessment to check up on which concepts from units 1-3 they are retaining and which are necessary for them to work on. They will be receiving individualized assignments in order to practice as well as class review. 

 If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!!

WRITING:  

We didn't have time for writing this week because of swimming lessons. Coming up, students will choose a topic of interest and do some research and note-taking and use their information to write a magazine article using an online magazine template where they can add pictures and links to support their topic.

READING:

   We are going to begin our second genre unit. The book is Sign of the Beaver and the theme is facing a challenge. Friday we read "Teammates" about Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. We discussed challenges they had and began doing a quickwrite about facing a challenge of our own.

SCIENCE:

Students have been doing a little research about a planet, creating a slideshow, and then presented them to the class last week. We will begin investigating constellations and more of our solar system next week.

 SPELLING/GRAMMAR:  This week we had a lesson about commas and did some practice. we will continue to work on comma rules next week and incorporate them into our writing.

JANUARY 8 - 12

SWIMMING BEGINS MONDAY, JANUARY 15TH!

CONFERENCES ARE FEB. 5TH AND FEB 7TH.

 

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Remembering 4-3 due Monday

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

   Students took the multiplying & dividing fractions test on Wednesday. This is a more difficult unit and we typically see more 1's and 2's. We continue to review all year and students will be able to retest the standards that they received a 1 or 2 on when they are ready. 
  Next week we will begin our Multiplying Whole Numbers & Decimals. Students have already had a lot of practice multiplying except with decimals. 

 If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!!

WRITING:  

This past week students wrote a letter to two different audiences on the same topic, using a different tone and word choices. With swimming next week we will not begin a new writing project yet.

READING:

   We have been working on nonfiction standards such as main idea/detail, cause & effect, text structure, quoting text information, and writing complete answers to text questions in a specific, not vague, way.
We read about Mount St. Helens, the mystery of the Mary Celeste ghost ship, and treasure recently salvaged from a pirate ship off the east coast.

SCIENCE:

We have been investigating gravity which isn't completely new to students. We watched Felix Baumgartners 24 mile high free fall from space as part of this discussion. Students are also working on a basic slideshow about a planet. Monday will be the test over gravity. It is one question and they will write a letter explaining their thinking.

 SPELLING: This week we discussed the sounds that ou and ow make and their spelling patterns. The test was Friday and will come home on Monday.