Vocabulary: The vocabulary skill this week will be to use Greek and Latin roots as clue to the meaning of a work. The Unit 2 test will be given on Friday covering all of the vocabulary from the unit.
Spelling: We will be working on words with consonant blends nd, st, lt, mp, nt, fr, sm, sn, sl, cl, tr, pl, dr and commonly misspelled words. The spelling words are: abundant, asteroid, descended, destructive, droop, eclipse, friction, limply, planetarium, slanted, smolder, snuffed, transparent, wasteland, wilted, ensure, insure, wander, wonder. The spelling test will be on Friday.
Grammar: Students will be working on using compound sentences and complex sentences this week. The Unit 2 test will cover the grammar skills from the entire unit.
Grammar video
Writing: This week we will be working on writing a myth. Students are to write a myth that explains how something in nature came to be. Students will share their myths with a group of younger students. This is due Friday, September 19.
Math: We will be working on our Go Math series. We will be finishing Chapter 3, which covers adding and subtracting decimals. We will complete lessons 3.11-Chapter Test this week. There will be one page of math homework assigned nightly, except for Fridays and the test day. The Chapter 3 Test will be on Thursday. On Friday we will begin Chapter 4, Multiplying Decimals. Each Friday, students will also take a multiplication timed test. It is very important for students to be fluid with their multiplication facts. Daily practice of multiplication facts is encouraged.
Social Studies: We have started a new unit on The Civil War. To help us learn about the war, we are reading the book Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. Students have been assigned a copy of this historical fiction novel and be answer questions about the book.
Summary of Across Five Aprils: Drawn from family records and from stories told by the author's grandfather, this deeply moving novel conveys the bitterness and drama of the Civil War through the lives of an ordinary family. The story is told through the eyes of young Jethro Creighton, who lives with his closely knit family in a farming community in southern Illinois. In April of 1861, Jethro is nine years old, and too young to understand the meaning of war. By the second April, Jethro has watched his older brothers go off to fight-- two for the North, one for the South. His parents are stricken by grief and suffering as the neighbors take revenge. As the seasons change and the years pass, the family closeness dissolves, one brother is killed, and a cousin deserts the Union Army. By April of 1865, the meaning of war has become all too clear to Jethro. Although still a boy, he is forced to leave his boyhood behind. (From The Civil War: Literature Units, Projects, and Activities by Janet Cassidy)
Science: We will begin a new science unit this week entitled "The Shocking Truth About Electrical Safety". We will be working on the following concepts: Electricity travels in a closed loop called a circuit. Electricity flows easily through conductors, not through insulators. Electricity always takes the easiest path to the ground. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. Because the human body is mostly water, it is also a good conductor of electricity.