February 25- March 1

Reading
In our fantasy unit, we've focused a lot on the character's journey. We learned that characters in our fantasy books can actually teach us life lessons! Students also learned that most fantasy stories follow a quest structure. Using this structure, students worked with their book clubs to determine the internal and external quests that their main character goes through within the book(s) that they've read.

Writing
Students have been looking at new stories this week and determining a big idea that they can focus their literary essay around. All of the stories have been read aloud in class which makes it a little easier as the stories are now familiar to us. Our next steps were to take our big idea and develop a strong thesis statement. Students are continuing to work to be sure that all of their evidence aligns with their overarching claim. We discovered that sometimes, if our evidence doesn't fit, we may need to alter our thesis statement.

Science
This week in science, students learned a little bit more about ocean currents and how water travels creating erosion. Students used their knowledge to solve a real world problem: Helping make a hillside safe for a new housing development. Geologists worked together to devise a plan. Once they tested their model, students had the opportunity to think through their plan to see what could make it better in the future. Students presented the their findings to the class as a group which allowed for others to hear of alternative solutions.

Social Studies
Students have begun working in groups to design a billboard advertising their assigned colony.   They will be focusing on writing a slogan and designing a logo to help others learn about why their colony was founded, what the geography and climate is like, the jobs that are available, and who could participate in government.   The teamwork has been great and I cannot wait to see the outstanding final billboard creations! 

Math
Students have been practicing dividing by decimals this week. They also had the opportunity to interpret remainders and decide whether to ignore the remainder, round up their answer, or include the remainder as a fraction or decimal. They supported their answer with reasoning, explaining why it made sense to do this with the remainder. Our Unit 5 Test is on Tuesday!