Learning objectives this week...

Unit of Inquiry Theme: Where we are in Time and Space (an inquiry into the relationships and the interconnectedness of civilizations)

• We will continue learning about the structure of opinion writing. Students will be focusing on something that is important to them and writing to reflect their opinion on that.
• We will finish our literary book study on the book Tiger Rising. We will study  how we can use context clues to improve our comprehension of the text. Please remember that students should be reading a minimum of 20 minutes daily. Class task Thursday & Friday.
• In math we will start our learning of division. Please remember that the methods they will be learning at school, may look different from the methods we learned as students. Although I always encourage support at home, please remember that teaching them the standard algorithm for division may confuse them and they will be assessed on the methods they are being taught at school. Students still need to focus on multiplication It is important that students are fluent with facts. Please have them practice at home. 
• We will continue learning about westward expansion, the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812,  in our IB unit and the technology (simple & compound machines) that settlers used as they moved west during this time. We will be assessing these concepts within the next two weeks. 
• We will also be learning the connection between force and motion and simple machines.

Report cards will be going home on Friday Jan 11.