History & Geography

This week we continued to learn about the Renaissance. Our objectives were:

• review what we learned before break about Florence
• take a virtual tour of Venice
• create a Venn Diagram comparing Venice and Florence
• understand why Michelangelo Da Vinci was called “The Renaissance Man”

Mathematics

This week we began learning how to find the Area of Triangles. Our objectives were:

• complete test corrections and review how to multiply and divide fractions
• understand what the base of any polygon is
• practice finding the height of a triangle given the base
• begin creating a poster that explains why the area of a triangle is half of its rectangle

Lectura

This week we introduced our new unit: Energy in Action. The essential question for this unit is:  How does energy affect our  life? The development of this unit will be closely connected to our new science module, Living Systems starting the week of January 20th. During writing we continued with our biography project. We read the biography of one of our students favorite authors, J.K. Rowling, and used is as as example on our to outline their essays. Students did a great job using their resources (linea cronologica) to organize their biography paragraphs. We will be finishing the final details next week. We talked about finding a good date were students can present their biographies to the class, and invite families that would like to attend. I will make sure I will let you know as soon as we put a date on the calendar. Other objectives this week included:

• Establish purposes, audiences and the need for  different genres.
• Apply reading comprehension skills and strategies such as asking questions, summarizing, visualizing, identify cause and effect situations.
• Understand the spelling patterns of homophones with v – b
• Apply knowledge of the use of capitalization and proper punctuation.
• Conjugate and understand how verbs are used in contexts, Present tense of regular verbs. Subject/ verb agreement.
• Using the information gathered, accurately organize it into categories.
• Cross-check different sources of information.
  

  Dean presenting his spelling game to the class. It was so much fun!

 

Ciencias

 Heat, Earth Materials and Conduction

As a class we discussed the concept of energy. The sun is the major source of energy that heats Earth. The different energy transfer properties of earth materials (soil and water) can lead to uneven heating of the Earth’s surface. We also discussed the concept of radiation. After that, students observed an example of heat transfer by conduction: from hot water to a container of cold water. Students discussed the mechanisms by which energy transfers to and from the air: radiation and reradiation from Earth’s surface, and conduction between Earth’s surface and air particles.

 

Character Education

“Be like a postage stamp, stick to something until you get there!” ~Josh Billings

During the month of January we will be learning all about Perseverance.   What does it mean?

1. Staying with the task and not giving up.
2. Showing commitment, pride and a positive attitude in completing tasks.
3. Trying again and again and again.
4. Being patient and willing to work hard.

Throughout the month we will be reading several great books, discussing them and then putting our perseverance to the test with some fun activities.