Monday, January 27, 2014

African Elephants

Dear Grade Fives!

Today, you will be doing something a bit different. You will go to a specific website and take short brief notes that answer a specific inquiry question. These notes will be recorded on your Blog Response word document. Tomorrow, you will edit your notes.
Today:
  1. Go to http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/ 
  2. Choose “Mammals” > “African Elephants”
  3. Inquiry Question: How do African Elephants use their trunks?
  4. record brief, keyword notes that answer the question
Wednesday:
  1. reread your notes to ensure they provide answers to the inquiry question
  2. check that you use keywords only (not full copied sentences)

Assessment:
  • Content (clarity, accuracy, quantity)
  • Conventions (spelling, keywords)

I am really looking forward to reading your notes!

Love, Mrs. French

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Human Body: The Learning Highlights

Dear Grade Fives! 

Today: In Science, you are wrapping up your science unit on the human body. In a single and complete paragraph, please tell me at least three of the most interesting things that you have learned.
Tomorrow, you will edit your response, listen to it, and then have a peer edit it as well. Please note that the checklist is a bit longer. You will also be checking that you have used proper paragraph conventions. When you have made all of your corrections, you will copy your blog and post it as usual. You may want to have two windows open side-by-side, one with the blog letter and one being your word document.
Just a reminder that a paragraph contains:
a)  topic (promise) sentence: what you promise to tell the reader about
b) at least three support sentences (at least): specific examples or details about your topic
c)  concluding sentence: where you remind the reader what you promised to tell the reader


Love, Mrs. French