CRTs & Native American Presentations

You probably have already heard, but in case your haven't, students will be taking state mandated Criterion Reference Tests (CRT) next week.  Students will be tested in the areas of math, reading, and science. In preparations, we have been reviewing and working on test taking strategies the past two weeks. Please make sure your child has a good breakfast and plenty of rest to power them up for the mental work ahead of them. They will have no homework that week, but I encourage students to work on their Native American Presentation (see below for more information).

Below is an outline of  current units of study:

Math

We are delving into measurement which include customary and metric systems, perimeter, area, and volume of rectangular prisms.  We have also touched on algebraic thinking.  We will continue investigating volume of other prisms and go more deeply into algebraic thinking following CRTs.

Social Studies/Reading

Students have been given an outline for creating a presentation, either a poster or PowerPoint, on a Native American culture of their choosing.  They organized note cards for each of the topics they are required to present to the class.  Mrs. Benensch, our librarian, provided students with books on many different cultures and a lesson on Internet sources on the WCSD website.  Students were also given a paper describing how to locate these Internet sources.  Students should have their research completed by May 6, paragraphs written on each of the topics by May 13, and be prepared to present their project to the class by May 22. We will be visiting Donner Memorial State Park and the Immigrant Museum on May 24 to support our Westward Expansion studies.

Westward Expansion will become our focus in social studies,  We will be reading informational and literature texts to support this study.

Science

Our Mixtures and Solutions unit is in its final set of investigations--chemical reactions.  The labs our a lot of fun, and I am sure the kids will enjoy the learning experience.