I hope you all enjoyed time together last week! It felt great to be back in the classroom today, and we fell right back into the groove.
Reader's Workshop
We will begin working on a new unit. This is a biography unit and judging by our class discussion today the students are going to love this work!! We will start by reading some short biographies together to learn the text structure and how to take notes while we read. Then the students will be assigned a biography chapter book to read independently. During this unit we will also write a first person narrative essay, write and memorize a short speech, create a timeline, and participate in a wax museum. I will let you know the date of the wax museum as soon as possible so that you are able to join us!
Math
We took our final division test today. We will begin working with fractions tomorrow. At first our focus will be on the basics of fractions. We will be breaking things into equal pieces, learning about the numerator and denominator, and comparing the size of fractions.
Writer's Workshop
We will continue our work with our informational text. We will begin to edit and revise our writing.
Science
We completed our Solar System research today. With this research we will be creating glogs. All of this work will be done in school and directions will be sent home so that you can view our glogs.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Albany County Sheriff Visit and the Science Fair
We learned about how real police officers solve crimes.
Deputy Hotaling explained how a police officer looks for evidence and how he/she collects evidence.
We sealed "evidence" into evidence bags.
We had our fingerprints taken and examined the unique patterns.
We saw how to use special fingerprint dust and how to lift a print of a solid surface.
Deputy Martel taught us about working with a K-9.
We met K-9 Mo and saw him in action.
Bravo to our classmates who participated in the Science Fair!
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Happy Groundhog Day
It is hard to believe that it is already February. I have a feeling the groundhog is going to see his shadow this year!
Tuesday is our first of two conference days this month. I have closed out the conference sign-ups so I can prepare to meet with you. If you have not signed up for a conference and would like to meet with me please send me an email to arrange a time.
This month current events are voluntary, however we have full class participation! I sent home a finalized schedule last week.
Reading
We continue to read our mystery book while taking notes like a detective. We are also reading our independent chapter books and writing a short response each day to sharpen our skills.
Writing
We will finish drafting our informational writing piece while working on revising. We will also look at adding text features to make our writing more interesting.
Math
We will finish our work with division this week. We will work on dividing with 1 and 0, fact families and using our multiplication and division skills to solve word problems.
This week we will also continue to work on Area. We have a solid understanding of the difference between perimeter and area and how to find each. This week we will find the area of large figures and irregular figures.
Science
We have begun learning about the Solar System. This week we will use the internet and books to research the planets. We will research Earth together to learn how to use these resources. Then the students will research each planet on his/her own.
Some photos from last week...
We are participating in a program called Junior Achievement (https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/ja-usa/home). This week was our first of 5 lessons. Thank you to Mrs. Kanuck for volunteering to teach this program.
Friday was such a fun day. We celebrated our first compliment party by wearing pajamas, making slime (http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/slime.htm) and watching Holes.
Ms. Keller was our mystery reader!
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