It’s a short week this week, but we’ve got a lot packed in!  Our Valentine’s Day party will be on Tuesday. Thursday is the last day of the 2nd Trimester (can you believe it!?) and also the day of the Lower School Dance! There will be no school on Friday or the following Monday – enjoy the long weekend!  Here’s what we’re working on in class:

Writing: We’re moving back into prose writing this week and focusing on compare/contrast essays.  Students will be creating a final piece that focuses on comparing and contrasting two European explorers that we have studied in Social Studies class.

Reading: Students are getting into their new novels.  They’re really getting the hang of reading group meetings and working hard at actively listening to each other, thoughtfully thinking about each others’ ideas, and pushing each other to dig deeper into their analysis of their readings.

Spelling/Grammar: A grammar week this week, we will be looking at special formatting.  We’ll learn about formatting titles, letters, addresses, dialogue, and quotations.

Science:  Students will be working on their final Trimester 2 circuits project in preparation for our Celebration.

Social Studies: We will be learning about French and Dutch colonies in North America. In addition to continuing our work with maps and timelines, we will also be using venn diagrams and cause and effect charts to organize information about colonies in America.

Math: We will be dividing decimals.  We will also review all the lessons from this unit on working with decimals in preparation for our next math check on Wednesday, Feb. 22.