Why are rules important?

This week our essential question in reading was "Why are rules important?"  We read about rules in towns.  We read about laws the governement makes regarding fishing, food and even patents.

We finished up our money unit in math.  The math test will be coming home this weekend for your review and signature.  Overall, the students did very well.  We will be moving on to Geometry beginning with 2D shapes next week.  The fourth graders graciously allowed us to borrow their Chromebooks this week to play our favorite online math game, Prodigy.

In science we continued our Earth Day unit.  We made Earth Day books and Earth Day mobiles.

The students made service job puppets in social studies. The students were assigned an occupation. Then  they had to draw that person wearing the clothing and using the tools that the job required and write about what they did.

I can't tell you what else we did this week...It's a surprise!!

38 Days to Go...

Our classroom countdown is on. This year has flown by so fast. As of today there are 38 days left of school to go.

This week we celebrated Earth Day in both reading and science.  Our essential question was "How can we protect the Earth?"  We read about children in a classroom who entered a contest by making paper cranes out of recycled paper.  This story inspired us to try to make some origami animals too.  We made butterflies and fish.  

In science we finished up our habitat projects.  Then we started on an Earth Day book.  Look for some pictures of those next week.  Here are some of the habitat posters. 

We are still practicing with money in math.  Next week we will add bills to our lessons.  We will be having a unit assessment on money next week.  

The students wrote another opinion writing piece this week.  This one made me hungry.... The topic was to write about the most delicious dessert and try to convince a friend to eat it.  Yum!!

Looks like spring is finally here!!  Enjoy the weekend.

Counting Coins

A main focus for us this week was counting coins.  We started off the week with nickels and pennies and then moved on to dimes and quarters.  We practiced recognizing the coins and counting them. We even played some math games to help us.

Our question in reading this week was "What do heroes do?"

We read about some very interesting people like Rudy Garcia-Tolson.  He was born with birth defects and has his legs amputated. He became the youngest competitor in an Ironman race.  He is currently training to compete in his third paralympics.

The students practice their opinion writing skills this week with the topic of the best book they have read.  They had to give four reasons and cite text evidence for why they felt that book was their favorite.  They did a great job and the illustrations were fantastic!!

The students are continuing to work on their habitat projects in science.  They have finished writing and typing their reports.  Next week, they will make a poster of their habitat and present to the rest of the class.  

Have a great weekend.

And the Winner Is...

This is the winning drawing for the class book that we will be publishing.  Congratulations to the lucky illustrator.  Our book is scheduled to be published on Aprill 22.  Hopefully our copy will be sent to us before Best of Heights Night on May 11 so that it can be displayed.  

This week our essential question was "How do people get along?"  We discussed one of our vovabulary words this week... "cooperation."  We read a story about a girl that plays soccer and needs to learn how to cooperate to help the team win the game.  We also read about how children at a school in Seattle came together to stop bullying.

This week we learned about idioms.  The students chose to create a book of idioms.  This will be on display at Best of Heights Night.  Here is a sneak peek...

We finished up our unit on time this week.  The second graders should be familiar with time to the nearest five minutes at this level.  Some students had a hard time grasping the idea of the wording of quarter to/past and half past. We took a unit test and I felt like overall the class needed more review.  So we did some more practice and then took a re-test.  Some of the students still struggled with some of the concepts.  Look for the test to come home this weekend for you to sign and review.  We will continue to practice these skills through the end of the year.  Keep it in mind and try to review time with your children.  

This week in science we started a new unit on Plants and Habitats.  The students will be working together in groups to create a habitat report.  In social studies, they learned about how products are made and transported and how consumers then purchase these products. 

I have my fingers crossed that Opening Day of baseball is still on this weekend.....