The Crime of the Century!

Thankfully there were no crimes in class today other than those that we read about in the newspaper.  As per usual on Monday, we spent some time reading the newspaper.  Students read articles during independent reading and then shared out about them in a community circle.  We heard about missing football players, costume designers, basketball games, a missile strike in Pakistan, and several other stories.  We then spent some time reading an article together and filling out a notes page on it.

We ended up finding an interesting article about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, which happened on March 2, 77 years ago this day.  Over the course of reading the article we learned what archives were, a bit of geography about where New Jersey is, a bit of history about who Charles Lindbergh was, and a bit about what a federal crime is.  If your parents or grandparents remember the event, it might be interesting to have them talk to your child about it.

In writing, students worked on finishing up their final formal Response to Literature essay.  The essay is a response to folktale called “The Mysterious Butte,” that teaches an important lesson about stealing. Final drafts of the essay are due on Wednesday.

In mathematics, we spent a little more time working with negative numbers on a numberline model.  On the district assessment, one of the common areas that students struggled with was working with numberline models.  We are beginning Unit 8 and will focus on more work with fractions and ratios over the coming several weeks.

At the end of the day we did a little read aloud and discussed the procedure we will use for students to do research and present on the 3 different Colonial Regions.  Students will be doing research, filling out note-taking guides, and then posting and uploading information to our classroom wiki. Stay tuned for updates.

Homework:

1. Language Arts: Literature Circle reading and Job Sheets.
2. Mathematics: Finish Skills Practice 47 and 48 if not completed during class, Do page 171
3. Reading: Read for 20 minutes and fill out pink reading log.
4. Other: Read current events article and fill out note-taking sheet.

Mr. Weis