Week of February 11th

Announcements: 

Wednesday - February 27th - Crazy Outfit Day

Monday - March 4th - Book orders due if you're choosing to order

Tuesday - March 5th - Mock Comp Day - this is the day that students will practice the MCAS long composition test.

***We will be starting our immigration unit this week. The first project will be to learn about our families immigration history by interviewing a family member. If your immigration history is unknown, students can interview a family friend or we can arrange to have them interview a Hanlon staff member.

Valentine's Day Photos

   

Reading
Written by: Cassidy

• On Monday, we started paragraph two in our book review.
• The next day, we finished drafting our paragraph two about why we recommend the book. We also shared why we like our paragraph.
• On Wednesday we revised and edited out book review.
• The next day we published our book review.
• On Friday we brainstormed what we know about biographies and read biographies from the school library. Then we added to our brainstorming list.

Writing
Written by:Derek, Brien,

• On Monday we planned our topic for our long comp. It has to be a persuasive piece about what we do in our free time. We also planned the body paragraphs.
• On Tuesday we reviewed the purpose of the intro and closing paragraph. Then we planned our leads and we wrote our intro paragraphs.
• On Wednesday we finished planning our long comp and worked on writing our intro paragraph and paragraph two.
• On Thursday we worked on using transition words to link our reasons and opinions.
• On Friday we worked on how to write a persuasive conclusion paragraph.

Science
Written by:Annie,Paris

• On Tuesday we got together in partners and read a book about volcanoes.
• On Wednesday we read about earthquakes. We also got to look at pictures of earthquakes and the damage from them.

• On Thursday we read about different types of weathering and erosion.
• On Friday we watched a video about different types of weathering and erosion.

Math
Written by:Jack C., Parsa

• On Tuesday, we finished making our fraction cards and started to compare our fractions with each other.
• On Wednesday, we compared fractions on the mimio. Some of us finished making fraction cards and we learned how to play capture fractions.
• After that, we sorted the fraction cards by landmark numbers like 1 or ½.
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  Lastly, we had a workshop and did page 43. Some of us put our fraction cards in order on a number line and we played capture fractions again.

Week of February 4th

Well Nemo has come and gone and I hope everyone is shoveled out. Let's hope the groundhog is right and that Spring will come early!






Valentine's Day
As you know, Valentine's Day is this Thursday. If students want to exchange Valentine's, I will give a few minutes at the end of the day to exchange. My rule for exchanging Valentine cards is that everyone must receive similar Valentines and they must be kind and positive. Students will need to bring in a bag or box to collect their Valentine Cards. We have 21 students in the class and I will send home a class list tomorrow. 

Long Comp
Our "Mock Comp Day" is scheduled for March 5th. It's important that students are present and on time that day since it's our practice test for the Long Composition.  

Since we did not have school on Friday, the blog is written by me, rather than the students. 

Reading:

• We focused on the qualities of a well written book review and used our checklist to see if other book reviews met the criteria. 
• We planned our book review and focused on character description, plot, theme and why we recommend the book. 
• Students drafted the first paragraph of their book review on Thursday. 

Writing:

• We focused on what makes a good ending and how to answer the prompt without being too obvious. Students worked on revising their piece. 
• I met with students in small groups to focus on punctuation and dialogue while students edited their pieces. 
• On Wednesday, students published their pieces. 
• Using the rubrics and exemplars provided by the state, students learned how they're going to be scored. We looked at examples from the previous "Free time" prompt and examined why students received the scored that they did. 

Math:

• One Monday and Tuesday, we continued with our previous math workshop and learned about adding fractions with unlike denominators  We used 4 x 6 arrays to help.
• On Wednesday, students learned how to create visual models to help them solve subtraction problems with like denominators. 
• Students learned about mixed numbers and improper fractions. They spent the rest of this time making fraction cards for the upcoming workshop. 

Science:

• We watched two videos this week; one was on earthquakes and the other was on volcanoes. Students learned strategies for taking notes on videos such as using symbols or pictures.
• We read a book about how islands are formed and made an mountain flip book.  

 

Week of January 28th

Valentine's for Veterans
We got together with our buddy class to make Valentine's for Veterans, which are donated to the VA Hospital in West Roxbury.

 

 

 

 



Science
Written by:Keith, Parsa ,Brien

• We read about plate tectonics and there are two types of plate tectonics, which are the continental plates and the ocean plates. Also we read about Pangea, which is when all the continents were together forming when big super continent.
• For both Tuesday and Wednesday we did the same thing. We made a pangea map. We colored and cut out pictures of what earth looked like 450 million years ago, 250 million years ago, 65 million years ago and today. We cut out the different continents and made Pangea.
• We talked about how the surface of the earth can change over time and it is a very slow change. This happens because the plate tectonics are moving around in the ground.
• Today we did the same states and capitals test we did in the beginning of the year.

Pangea Map

This is the earth model from last week. 

Reading
Written by: Stacey, kaitlyn, Liam

• On Monday we read the legend The Seventh Sister. We also read the Cherokee legend of how the milky way came to be. Later that day we compared the two stories.
• The next day we read three stories from three different cultures about how fire came to be.
• This Wednesday we read a myth and had to explain in writing what thing came to be.
• The next day we went on the Spaghetti Book Club website to explore book reviews and what made it good or bad
• At the end of the week we read more book reviews and made a chart of good vocabulary and that makes a good book review. We also talked about what makes a good book review so we know what to do when we write one.

Writing

Written by: Cassidy, Jack.C, Tommy

• On Monday, we did a question and answer session about the upcoming long comp. We also learned how to properly pick a good topic. Lastly, we made our revising and editing checklist on the back of the packet.
• Next, we learned how to plan a topic with space they give us.
• After that, we learned how to use binoculars in our writing. Binoculars means zooming in important details that may be happening in the background.
• The whole class practiced dialogue rules using the mimio.

Math
Written by: Amy, Paris

• We  learned  how to cut a rectangle into halves and fourths and worked with the fraction ½, ¼, and ⅛.
• On Tuesday, we practiced cutting rectangles into thirds and sixths and worked with the fraction ⅓ and ⅙.  We also practiced finding equivalent fractions.
• We learned how to find fractions of a group. That would be finding ¾ of 24.
• On Thursday and Friday, we used 5 x 12 rectangles and practiced finding different fractions on it. We also solved story problems about fractions. We also started working on adding fractions up to 1.

Week of January 22nd

Science
Written by: Keith

• We learned about the layers of the earth which are the crust, mantle, outer core and the inner core.
• Also we saw a powerpoint Mrs. Styles made about the layers of the earth and saw a brainpop video.
• Today we made a model of the earth.

Reading
Written by: Hallie

• On Tuesday, we reread The Weaving Contest. Together we filled out a web that had setting, characters, problem, solution, lesson and other. This helped us understand the myth more.
• We read The Legend Of The Lady’s Slipper  and filled out another web. This was a legend and not a myth.
• To end the week we read The Milky Way. This was a story about how they thought the Milky Way came to be.

Writing
Written by: Brien, Amy

• We finished editing our expert projects.
• We spent Thursday and Friday publishing our expert projects. We made them into expert books and they came out really well!

               

     

                                                                                                                                                              

Math

Written by :Stacey

                              

• This Tuesday, we learned how to use protractors to measure the degrees in an angle. We also used the mimo for a geometry sort review.
• The next day, we kept reviewing for the test.
• On Thursday, we had a math workshop. The stations were using a protractor with Mrs.Styles, did some perimeter and area with Mrs.Herlihy, and another mimio geometry sort.
• And today we took a geometry math test.