Fifth grade students in Mrs. Hall and Ms. O’Donnell’s class at Coal City Intermediate School have been learning about the ecosystem using a variety of methods in science. Students have worked in groups to learn about an owl’s place in the food web by dissecting owl pellets, and they’ve utilized what they know about producers, consumers, decomposers, and food webs to break the code of an escape room. Throughout the unit, they’ve also read several leveled readers to learn more about how ecologists study
the ecosystem and the restoration process.
In reading, students are wrapping up another novel unit that focuses on character development, making predictions and inferences, and analyzing figurative language. Students are using the Turn That Question Around [TTQA] method that they’ve been using throughout the year to develop their writing skills when writing about what they are reading. Besides answering comprehension questions about what they are reading, they are also providing text evidence to support their own ideas for higher order thinking questions.