What We Are Studying
March-April

MATH

Everyday Math Unit 7: Multiplication and Division

Unit 7 extends the basic multiplication and division skills the students learned in the first half of the year. The main areas of focus in this unit are: to review multiplication and division patterns, to extend basic multiplication facts, to practice making estimates of costs, and to explore ratios and geometric figures.

Everyday Math Unit 8: Fractions

Students will review the uses of fraction and fraction notation and will start to develop a solid understanding of equivalent fractions .  The main areas of focus in this unit are: to explore fractional and spatial relationships, to introduce the number line for fractions, to find equivalent fractions, to compare fractions using region models, to name quantities greater than 1 with fractions and mixed numbers, and to solve number stories involving fractions.

Everyday Math Unit 9: Multiplication and Division

In this unit, we will focus on algorithms to multiply 1- and 2-digit numbers. They will learn the partial-products algorithm as well as the traditional algorithm. The main areas of focus in this unit are: to multiply and divide with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000, to use mental math to multiply, to share money, and to find products of 2-digit numbers.

SCIENCE

Simple Machines

Students have finished the unit on Simple Machines and really got into all the neat experiments!

SOCIAL STUDIES

Microsociety: Students are running the classroom like a town.  They are learning about local government, taxes, responsibility, democratic decisions and they are keeping a bankbook of their earnings and deductions. They are also coming up with ways for their town to earn money and will be presenting these at Market Day on Friday, March 28th.

LANGUAGE ARTS

GRAMMAR: Use of commas
READERS' WORKSHOP: Students will be starting some new novels: The Littles, A Taste of Blackberries, Ramona the Brave, The Chalkbox Kid Read Aloud:  I am reading aloud the Andrew Clements book No Talking.
WRITING: Students are working autobiographies, quick writes and learning about Word Choice with the 6-Traits Writing Program.