What a cold snowy week! I have a few students who were certain that today would be a snow day. I do think we will be getting a lot more snow tomorrow though!
In Reading Workshop this week students were grouped in to research teams. Each team is researching a different form of Extreme Weather. Students created a research plan and divided up the work based on subtopics the group decided to research. We have talked about taking notes from what we read and summarizing it into our own words. Students have also worked on synthesizing information from different texts. They asked “How does this new information support or change what I already learned?” When reading a second or third text on their subtopic. Groups will be creating posters to present what they have learned to the class.
This week in Writing Workshop we have continued to develop our personal essays. Students have chosen a topic that is important to them and have supported their opinion with three reasons. Students are now writing mini-stories for each reason to give an example that supports their reason. We also had the opportunity to visit Ms. Burdis’s Kindergarten and help the kindergarten students write letters to the North Pole.
We began the week in Math with an Onlin Assessment that covered the first 4 Topics we have studeied this year, ask your child to share their results with you on their iPad. We then started Topic 5…Division! It is absolutely imperative that your child have instant recall of their basic multiplication and division facts (through the 12s) as our math gets more challenging, those that struggle with basic facts have a very difficult time. (Basic fact matery is a 3rd grade skill).
We are wrapping up our Organisms in Their Environments unit in Science. Students will be bringing home Science vocabulary to study tonight and a Review sheet to study from on Monday. Our SCIENCE TEST will be on Wednesday next week. As our unit comes to an end we are looking for homes for a few guppies, African Dwarf frogs and snails. These animals need a fresh water habitat (aquarium). If you would be interested in your child bringing home a new pet, please let me know. I hope to find homes for all of them before Christmas.
We have also had a number of other great activities that we participated in this week. Mrs. Smits taught us all about our brains and what we can do to grow them! We even made our brains from candy and whipped cream and ate them! We are working hard to develop a growth mindset in all of our students! We helped the kindergarten classes make fleece tie blankets for the People Center and we participated in The Hour of Code! Students learned the importance of Coding Jobs now and in the years to come. Every student knows how to code! Check out code.org if you too would like to learn more! We also created our Build a Gift craft! Thank you to all of the fabulous parents that came in to volunteer!
Don’t forget to check out our pictures below.
As always you can get your child’s take on their week by checking out their student blog at: Kid Blog
Important Dates
Friday, December 16 – Honors Choir Caroling
December 23- January 2 – Winter Holiday Break