Curriculum Topics This Semester

4th Grade

4th graders are well into their Wagon Train Journey and are learning about the vital decision making and problem solving challenges presented to those who chose this adventurous way of life. Simulation learning brings subject matter alive for the students and allows them to feel what is was like to walk in other shoes.

Math Quest is presenting various strategies for math problem solving and leading the children on to use these various ways of approaching a problem in creating challenges for group members to tackle. Fate cards are procuring extra bonus amounts of gold and jewels to speed students along on their quest.

Learning About Ancient Civilizations Through Their Art is presently focusing on the Mayan culture in preparation for a trip to see the Mesoamerican exhibit at the Newark Museum in early December.

Looking at Analogies is allowing the students both vocabulary growth as well as a large variety of ways of looking at word relationships.

Related Websites:

Newark Museum - www.newarkmuseum.org

Oregon Trail - www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Oregontrail.html

5th Grade

5th graders find themselves in the process of using scale, perimiter, area, and a variety of polygons in readying themselves for the consruction of mazes as well as the design of their chosen residential structure. Cost of "square footage" is a term being learned by our student architects. Final design will be addressed on the computer.

Weighty Words thus far include abasement, bifurcate, coruscate, dogmatic, expedient, and felicity. Out vocabulary expands weekly.

Junior Great Books have provided us with shared inquiry discussion on the topics of coping with tragedy in The Ghost Cat and identifying and relating with the wisdom of the young in The Story of Wang Li.