Arianna read a Newsela article about animal webcams and how they are used in different settings. She visited a few of the live webcams and watched lions and eagles in their habitats. We reviewed using passive and active voice in writing. She practiced identifying each in sample sentences. After reviewing where we left off, we continued reading "City of Ember" and confirmed Arianna's prediction of Doon's reaction to The Instructions. Lina's curious nature proves helpful, if dangerous, once again.
Arianna continued working on her WebQuest about Lewis and Clark and their expedition west. Throughout her quest she will learn and document information about the expedition. She added pages to her Google Slide journal that included her encounters with the Native Americans, and she completed her research and entry on animals and plant life she saw on her journey.
This morning Arianna completed a hands-on demonstration to learn about two ways that fossils are made: casts and imprints. We used playdoh and small objects (toys and shells) to see how fossils are formed. She completed two vocabulary matching activities and we read short passages together. We also learned about cutting edge techniques being used to map dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley, Texas: https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/dinosaur-valley/dino-tracks
Arianna warmed-up with two addition facts mental minutes and a quiz on correctly displaying data in a bar graph. Next, Arianna answered course challenge questions on dividing multi-digit numbers by single digits with and without remainders. Finally, we focused our remaining time on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Arianna made equivalent fractions to have common denominators, allowing her to add or subtract fractions. She also simplified, using division, when necessary.
Arianna wrote another entry in her COVID journal, although she is finding it difficult to know what to say. She began a virtual tour of the Museum of the American Revolution from the Scholastic site but decided she would like to share that with her Social Studies teacher. We watched a BrainPop video about strengthening sentences and completed a quiz. Arianna read the beginning of chapter 8 in "City of Ember." Lina is not having any luck finding someone who will help her decipher the letter until she uncovers the word 'pipeworks' and thinks of Doon. As she recalls him working in the pipeworks, she also thinks about how determined he is to help the city and how naturally curious he is. Arianna pointed this out long before Lina got it.
After recalling what she read yesterday, Arianna read chapters 6 & 7 of "City of Ember." Although it seems early in the story, Lina has found what appears to be the letter of instructions from The Builders. However, the solution to Ember's problems isn't close at hand because the letter has been badly damaged and will require deciphering.
This morning we began the session with a video about sloths that we began previously. In this video, the fossils of ancient species of sloths and the clues we have learned about their biology and behavior were discussed. To better understand the work that paleontologists do, we began the next of topic of discussion on how fossils are formed and found. Arianna completed a learning activity to demonstrate her background knowledge on fossils and ancient species of animals to begin this next topic.
Yanuell and Arianna were given a free day from graphic design and we played a game of Harry Potter Jeopardy. We used all of the same rules and both of the students did great with their knowledge of Harry Potter.
Arianna presented her information that she gathered for her assignment. We went to her inspiration webpage, found images of the people that inspired Ariana Grande, and uploaded them and the content to the page. Arianna labeled each image along with the birth dates of each artist. Arianna saved her work for the next class.
