Cluster 1 Newsletter

Hello!

We hope everyone had a relaxing school vacation week and are feeling refreshed as we head into the month of March. In math, we started a new unit called Area and Surface Area. We worked on describing the characteristics of polygons. We also combined everything we have been learning about finding the area of parallelograms and triangles to calculate the area of polygons that are not parallelograms and triangles. We utilized our decomposing and/or surrounding and subtracting strategies to determine the area. As we work through this unit, students will be able to make connections between the area of a triangle and the area of a parallelogram with the same base and height. They will be able to generalize how to calculate the area of a triangle using the length of a base and the corresponding height.

For the next week or two, we will work on describing the term surface area as how many square units it takes to cover all the faces of a three-dimensional object. We will also learn how to calculate the surface area of a rectangular prism and share our strategies with one another. Here is a useful link to Family Resources which will enable families to learn about our current unit on Area and Surface Area.

Enjoy,

Ms. Palermo

The 3rd Annual Cell Museum is a huge success! Students created some exceptional models of organelles along with posters, pins, stickers, games and more to help themselves and the WMS community learn about organelles and how our cells function! We are so proud of all their hard work!

We continue our look into all things teeny-tiny with our Microscope unit. Students will not only learn how to effectively use a light microscope, but they will also learn how to make their own slides, observe protist motion AND design and conduct their own experiments using a unicellular organism called a Tetrahymena! Through this activity, students will be introduced to the scientific method using independent and dependent variables. This activity is made possible by a Science outreach program at Washington University in St. Louis. So cool!

Later in March we will leave behind the very very small for the very very big as we transition into learning about Astronomy!

Thanks!

Miss Daigneault

Unit 6.2 Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa

Essential Questions

1. Why do human communities create government and laws?

2. What common elements do religions share and how do their differences matter?

3. How is the physical environment connected to people and the way they live?

Enduring Understandings

Students will begin to understand that:

Judaism, Christianity and Islam shared common roots in monotheism, based upon Abraham’s reported revelation from God. But they also developed distinct teachings and practices and differences of emphasis. Each of these religions was also internally diverse and changed over time.

Learning Objectives:

I can organize introductory information and write questions about three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

I can build a foundational understanding of Judaism as part of a civic disposition toward religious pluralism.

I can build a foundational understanding of Judaism through text and visual sources.

I can build a foundational understanding of Christianity as part of a civic disposition toward religious pluralism.

I can build a foundational understanding of Christianity through text and visual sources

I can build a foundational understanding of Islam as part of a civic disposition toward religious pluralism.

I can build a foundational understanding of Islam through text and visual sources.

I can complete a Venn diagram to show understanding of the three Abrahamic religions and their relationship.