Unit 1 - Nature's Fury - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
During this unit, students will explore rapid and slow changes to the Earth's surface while studying the effects of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. We will be reading realistic fiction texts as well as many informational texts on these subjects. Students will also be writing about natural disasters and studying these changes to the Earth in science. In Social Studies, this unit connects with our geography study, as students learn about North American regions and states. Below you find more specific information and vocabulary.
The other topic we spend time on in this unit (and all year) is text structure (or how a text is organized). A text can be organized in the following ways:
sequential order, chronological order, description, cause/effect, problem/solution, comparison/contrast, and question/answer. Students learn the words to look for that will signal how the text is organized.
Vocabulary:
landform -
climate - the weather of an area over a long period of time
equator - the imaginary line around the center of the Earth (climate is usually warmer the closer you are to the equator)
region - one or more places that have things in common (climate; weather; resources; etc)
renewable resource -
nonrenewable resource -
flow resource - a resource that can only be used at a certain time and place (wind, water, sun)
capital resource - the tools or machines we use for production
human resource - a person that has particular knowledge about a topic
natural agents of change -
Reading:
August 22-September 6: We have been working on reading closely. "Close reading" involves reading a text word by word, sentence by sentence, line by line assuming that every word you read is important. In a nutshell, it's paying attention to detail. It also means that we may have to read a text more than one or even two times! With close reading, we have been working on using text features to enhance our comprehension of reading. We learned about the types of text features and why each of those is used by authors. We have also been working on pulling/locating information in a nonfiction text quickly (using those text features).
September 6 - September 20: we read the text Volcanoes by Semour Simon. With this text, we were really learning a lot about the structures of Earth and how volcanoes form. With this text, we also learned a lot about how to respond to questions about our reading by paraphrasing and adding details from the text to support our thinking.
September 23 - October 4: These 2 weeks have focused on text structure and organization. We learned about 7 different ways that authors organize nonfiction text. Knowing and understanding this information will help us locate information quickly and better understand what we read. Students will continue to work with this in small groups, as it is sometimes a difficult concept to understand. We will be reviewing this periodically throughout the year.
October 7 - 11: This week, we read Eye of the Storm. This text is about Warren Faidley, a storm chaser and photographer. We looked at how this text was organized/structured. We also reviewed the Midwestern and Southwestern regions of the United States. Warren Faidley tracks a lot of tornadoes, so it seemed fitting to focus on those regions. Check out Warren Faidley's website (listed below) to see more of his photographs and follow him online. He does return emails, so spark up a conversation with him to learn more about why he chases these storms to photograph them.
Social Studies:
August 22 - September: We have been learning about the different regions and landforms in the United States. We have also discussed how landforms and the equator affect climate. Additionally, we are studying resources available in the different regions of the United States and understanding how the natural resources that are available affect the products that people make.
September - October: Along with our study of the natural forces that change the shape of our land, we are studying the different regions in the United States. With our study of volcanoes, we focused our attention on the Western Region. That is where the Ring of Fire is located! As we study tornadoes with Warren Faidley, we will turn our attention to the Southwest and the Midwest Regions - where you will find Tornado Alley. Then we will move on to study hurricanes and the Southeast and Northeast Regions. We should know those really well since that's where we live!
Other Resources of interest:
Warren Faidley's web site - www.warrenfaidley.com
United States Geological Survey - http://www.usgs.gov/
"Storm Stories" - a program on the weather channel
The Weather Channel web site - http://www.weather.com/
The National Geographic web site - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Time for Kids web site - http://www.timeforkids.com/
Weather and climate data for Hagerstown, Maryland - http://i4weather.net/
Weather history (dates back as far as 1973) - http://www.almanac.com/weather/history/MD
Maryland Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes - http://www.usa.com/maryland-state-natural-disasters-extremes.htm
Maryland Earthquake Information - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/?regionID=20
http://www.mdkidspage.org/
Weather Wiz Kids - www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-lightning.htm
Check out some of Nature's Fury that we kept track of last year during our unit:
- Week of September 4th, 2012: Earthquake hits Costa Rica
- Week of September 10th, 2012: Volcano begins to erupt in Nicaragua
- Thursday, September 14th, 2012: Volcano begins to erupt in Guatemala
- Week of September 11th, 2012: Typhoon bears down on Okinawa, Japan and South Korea (as strong as a category 5 hurricane - like Katrina)
- Week of September 11th, 2012: Earthquake hit China
- Weekend of October 26th-28th, 2012: Earthquakes (7.7 off the coast of Canada - British Columbia; 3.9 in Los Angeles, California)
- Weekend of October 26th-28th, 2012: Tsunami warnings in Hawaii because of quake off the coast of British Columbia
The other topic we spend time on in this unit (and all year) is text structure (or how a text is organized). A text can be organized in the following ways:
sequential order, chronological order, description, cause/effect, problem/solution, comparison/contrast, and question/answer. Students learn the words to look for that will signal how the text is organized.
Vocabulary:
landform -
climate - the weather of an area over a long period of time
equator - the imaginary line around the center of the Earth (climate is usually warmer the closer you are to the equator)
region - one or more places that have things in common (climate; weather; resources; etc)
renewable resource -
nonrenewable resource -
flow resource - a resource that can only be used at a certain time and place (wind, water, sun)
capital resource - the tools or machines we use for production
human resource - a person that has particular knowledge about a topic
natural agents of change -
Reading:
August 22-September 6: We have been working on reading closely. "Close reading" involves reading a text word by word, sentence by sentence, line by line assuming that every word you read is important. In a nutshell, it's paying attention to detail. It also means that we may have to read a text more than one or even two times! With close reading, we have been working on using text features to enhance our comprehension of reading. We learned about the types of text features and why each of those is used by authors. We have also been working on pulling/locating information in a nonfiction text quickly (using those text features).
September 6 - September 20: we read the text Volcanoes by Semour Simon. With this text, we were really learning a lot about the structures of Earth and how volcanoes form. With this text, we also learned a lot about how to respond to questions about our reading by paraphrasing and adding details from the text to support our thinking.
September 23 - October 4: These 2 weeks have focused on text structure and organization. We learned about 7 different ways that authors organize nonfiction text. Knowing and understanding this information will help us locate information quickly and better understand what we read. Students will continue to work with this in small groups, as it is sometimes a difficult concept to understand. We will be reviewing this periodically throughout the year.
October 7 - 11: This week, we read Eye of the Storm. This text is about Warren Faidley, a storm chaser and photographer. We looked at how this text was organized/structured. We also reviewed the Midwestern and Southwestern regions of the United States. Warren Faidley tracks a lot of tornadoes, so it seemed fitting to focus on those regions. Check out Warren Faidley's website (listed below) to see more of his photographs and follow him online. He does return emails, so spark up a conversation with him to learn more about why he chases these storms to photograph them.
Social Studies:
August 22 - September: We have been learning about the different regions and landforms in the United States. We have also discussed how landforms and the equator affect climate. Additionally, we are studying resources available in the different regions of the United States and understanding how the natural resources that are available affect the products that people make.
September - October: Along with our study of the natural forces that change the shape of our land, we are studying the different regions in the United States. With our study of volcanoes, we focused our attention on the Western Region. That is where the Ring of Fire is located! As we study tornadoes with Warren Faidley, we will turn our attention to the Southwest and the Midwest Regions - where you will find Tornado Alley. Then we will move on to study hurricanes and the Southeast and Northeast Regions. We should know those really well since that's where we live!
Other Resources of interest:
Warren Faidley's web site - www.warrenfaidley.com
United States Geological Survey - http://www.usgs.gov/
"Storm Stories" - a program on the weather channel
The Weather Channel web site - http://www.weather.com/
The National Geographic web site - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Time for Kids web site - http://www.timeforkids.com/
Weather and climate data for Hagerstown, Maryland - http://i4weather.net/
Weather history (dates back as far as 1973) - http://www.almanac.com/weather/history/MD
Maryland Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes - http://www.usa.com/maryland-state-natural-disasters-extremes.htm
Maryland Earthquake Information - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/?regionID=20
http://www.mdkidspage.org/
Weather Wiz Kids - www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-lightning.htm
Check out some of Nature's Fury that we kept track of last year during our unit:
- Week of September 4th, 2012: Earthquake hits Costa Rica
- Week of September 10th, 2012: Volcano begins to erupt in Nicaragua
- Thursday, September 14th, 2012: Volcano begins to erupt in Guatemala
- Week of September 11th, 2012: Typhoon bears down on Okinawa, Japan and South Korea (as strong as a category 5 hurricane - like Katrina)
- Week of September 11th, 2012: Earthquake hit China
- Weekend of October 26th-28th, 2012: Earthquakes (7.7 off the coast of Canada - British Columbia; 3.9 in Los Angeles, California)
- Weekend of October 26th-28th, 2012: Tsunami warnings in Hawaii because of quake off the coast of British Columbia