Miss Doherty

ELA

Our class kicked off the year with a genre study focusing on  the universal elements of fairy tales, particularly “Cinderella”.  Did you know this universal tale spans across over a thousand different cultures?  Well, now there will be a few more versions… Students wrote some fantastic, funny, fractured fairy tales wherein they kept the basic elements of a fairy tale but added their own unique “twist” by altering one or more literary elements: character, setting, or plot.  Some students wrote fairy tales representing a strong female character (as opposed to the “damsel in distress” who is “waiting for her prince to come”); some wrote fairy tales based on their own vibrant cultural background; and others decided to modify classic fairy tales by rewriting the story from a minor character’s point of view.  Our published pieces were truly inspired!

On a daily basis, we immerse ourselves in language… we study spelling patterns, expand our expressive vocabulary by learning great new words and tallying how often we use them on our “vocabulary tally chart”, and engage in independent reading and writing.  In our reading and writing journals, we refine our literary skills. 

At the moment, we are engrossed in studying and writing persuasive editorials.  Look out for our own editorials on display coming soon!

Math

In Math class, students have been busy examining many foundational math concepts.   We started off the year by examining the number system and how place value is so important when it comes to things like money and time.  We’ve since investigated rounding, expressions, equations, prime factorization, greatest common factors, and least common multiples.  Students collaborated on poems, ballads, stories, lyrics, scripts, and put on skits about prime and composite numbers. 

Some industrious math students are working on independent math projects in response to what we are learning in class. 

In light of this historic election season, we had a great time examining how math impacts the electoral process.  We examined the Electoral College and plotted the potential paths to victory for both McCain and Obama.   President-elect Obama certainly has MATH to thank for his victory!

We’ve also had fun applying what we’ve learned with math games and tricks like Digit Challenge, Express Yourself, and Palindromes.