In reading, students read the Junior Great Book No Guitar Blues. In this story, Fausto pretends to find a couple’s dog on the side of the road in order to earn reward money to buy a guitar. Students began by conducting a first read of the story and generated questions in their journal. During the second read of the story, students listened to an audio version and shared additional questions. Students also determined the meaning of challenging vocabulary using context clues within the story and responded to an open ended question involving the main character’s actions. Students then shared their thinking during a guided inquiry discussion. Ask your child to share why he/she thought Fausto put the $20 bill in the church basket!

In math 6, students worked with the measures of central tendency.  They went beyond calculating the mean, median and mode to asking questions like, what do they tell us about the data?  which one is best descriptor of the data.  This is a more abstract concept and many students found it challenging.  We also finished up making frequency tables and identifying their use and importance in the world of data. 

In math 5, students continued to work with the rules of divisibility by reviewing the rules for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10. Students also reviewed factors and multiples and began determine the greatest common factor and least common multiple of a given set of numbers. We will continue to work with GCF and LCM next week through word problems. Students received their Problem of the Week journal on Friday.  There will be a new problem given out every Friday that will be collected on Tuesday. Please take some time to discuss the problems with them and if needed, assist them with their solution.

In writing, we continued to look at many different sources in order to identify the writer’s inspiration. Students then worked within groups to write a piece about an object given a specific purpose for writing. Ask them to share what they wrote about!

In science, students experimented with force by completing several investigations involving changes in force in relation to changes in mass and added friction. They also had the opportunity to measure force using Newtons. Students enjoyed the hands on experience!