Tuesday

We completed the 2nd half of the vocabulary review sheet. Again, those words are on the test, so it would benefit the students to use that as a tool as they prepare for Friday's test.

We looked at more research stuff. We started by looking at the process, especially the planning part of any research project. I compared it to a vacation because the first steps are to figure out who's going with you on vacation and what purpose the vacation should serve. Will kids be going or is it just a couple married people? Will it be romantic, adventurous, relaxing, or just really far away from your mother-in-law?

Research is the same way. You can't really start without knowing what you want. We looked at narrowing their topic (something they should have already done with Mr. Day) and coming up with topic categories or research questions. This will help them have some focus to their research and hopefully not be overwhelmed with all the information that is out there.

We also looked at how to take notes on note cards. Each note card has three pieces of information: 1) the topic category the note goes with at the top; 2) the note (summarized/paraphrased/appropriately quoted); 3) the source and page number if available

The students had some time with an encyclopedia (I can thank Jiminy Cricket for knowing how to spell that word! Anybody know what I'm talking about here? "Ennnnnn-cyclopedia. E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A.") article about the Declaration of Independence to practice taking notes with topic categories.

Tomorrow, we'll make a trip to the library to do some book research.

Here's a link to the youtube video if you want to hear Jiminy Cricket sing about where to go when you're curious: Encyclopedia song