January Updates

Units Overview

SEL Topics:

This month, our class will focus on reviewing school expectations, showing kindness and caring towards each other, and helping students understand how to use a "bug and a wish" to be problem solvers. For example, students will be encouraged to tell their classmates, "This is what is bugging me, and I wish you would stop doing it."

The SEL talking circles will focus on

• Kindness 
• Bug and a wish 
• Diversity

Amplify Desmos Math: 

Unit 4: Relating Multiplications to Divisions

In this unit, students will explore the relationship between multiplication and division to multiply and divide whole numbers within `100`

Sub-Unit 2: Relating Multiplication and DIvision (Lessons 5–8 | Sub-unit 2 quiz )

Sub-Unit 3: Multiplying Greater Numbers (Lessons 9- 15 | Sub unit-3 Quiz)

Sub-Unit 4: Dividing Greater Numbers (Lessons 16- 20 | ENd of the unit assessment)

Below is the link to the caregiver resource that includes explanations of key math concepts and problems to try with your student Link 

Amplify CKLA:

Unit 5: What’s in Our Universe

What will my student learn?

Unit Summary

Students explore astronomy and the universe by reading about the sun, planets, our moon, asteroids, comets, meteors, galaxies, and stars. They are also introduced to the concept of gravity and other scientific topics such as matter, light-years, and black holes. Finally, they learn about important figures in the history of space exploration, including Nicolaus Copernicus and Mae Jemison. 

Vocabulary:

Universe, Satellite, Common, Stream, Galaxy, Fuse, Triumph, Force, Especially, International, Pursue

Below is the link to the caregiver resource that includes Reading worksheets if you want to work with your student at home Link Take Home worksheets with answer key Link 

Foundational Skills:

What will my student learn? 

In Unit 3, students will expand their understanding of spelling patterns with a focus on r-controlled vowels, words with the schwa sound /ə/, and alternative sound/spellings. Building on their knowledge of long and short vowel sounds, students will delve into how ‘r’ modifies vowels like ‘a,’ ‘e,’ ‘i,’ ‘o,’ and ‘u,’ as well as certain vowel teams. The unit also reviews consonant sounds, addressing tricky spellings and digraphs, such as ‘s’ producing /sh/ (as in sugar) and silent letters such as ‘w’ in 'wh' (as in who).Students will explore how the schwa sound can be made by any vowel and occurs in combinations such as /ə/ + /l/.

This unit introduces the last two major syllable types: r-controlled and final stable syllables. R-controlled syllables feature a vowel followed by the consonant ‘r,’ modifying its sound, as seen in stair and barnyard. Final stable syllables include the /ə/ + /l/ sound combination, as in puzzle and national.

Students will advance their decoding and vocabulary skills by learning prefixes such as under–, over–, tele–, super–, uni–, trans–, micro–, fore–, pro–, intra–, and inter–, and suffixes such as –hood, –ment, –en, and –ist. They will practice the spelling and usage of these affixes in sentences, noting spelling changes required when adding them.

Students will develop their spelling and writing skills through exercises focused on target sound/spellings and morphemes. Dictation exercises will encompass multisyllabic words and various spelling patterns, enhancing students' ability to spell abbreviations and comprehend reading passages. Writing prompts are provided for each passage, along with a sharing routine, during which students discuss their writing and get feedback from peers.

Social Studies:

Unit 3: Economics: People and Places Connected

In this unit, students will  investigate foundational economic concepts. They will learn about wants, needs, goods, and services. Children will gain an understanding of how producers and consumers rely on each other and how communities get what they need from places near and far. They will also begin to engage with the concepts of income inequality and what it means for a community to have members unable to meet their basic needs. They will investigate disparities that impact some marginalized groups more than others and consider how communities can move towards greater economic equity.

Science:

Unit 2: Properties of Materials- The class will be finishing up with chapter 1 and will start chapter 2 by the end of January.

In this unit, students will become “glue engineers.” They will explore different ingredients, test how they work, and try out different glue recipes. Each time, they make the glue a little better. At the end, students can explain which glue they made works best and why. students will answer the question - How do you make a material for a specific purpose?

 

Chapter 1: Students will tackle the question, How can you make sticky glue? They read a compelling book about what everyday things are made of and why as a way to understand the importance of properties of materials. Students go on to investigate two mystery glues. Are they the same glue or two different glues? In their first written argument, students make claims to answer that question and support their claims with evidence. The class goes on to observe and test possible glue ingredients, graph test data with the Graphing Tool, and search for information about these ingredients in the unit’s reference book. Using all of the gathered evidence, students work individually to plan, make, and test their own glue recipes.

In Chapter 2, students work to answer the question Can heating an ingredient (and returning it to its original temperature) make a better glue? They read a book to discover that some substances change when heated or cooled, while other substances remain substantially unchanged. They use the Sorting Tool to apply this knowledge to a digital card sort of reversible and irreversible changes. Then the class observes and tests a glue ingredient that has been heated and the same ingredient that has not been heated, discusses how the properties change with heating, and predicts whether those property changes would result in a stickier glue. Students discuss the concept of cause and effect and apply the concept to explain the effects they are observing. The chapter ends with another opportunity for students to practice making and supporting claims—this time about whether or not heating a cornstarch and water mixture will make a stickier glue.