The Secret Door!

In writing this week, we wrote fictional narratives.  Our topic was "What would happen if you found a secret door in the classroom?"  The students were very creative with their stories.  Some students were surprised to see a land full of puppies or candy or even zombies.

This week our essential question was "Why is teamwork important?"  We read about how astronauts must work together in space on the space station.  We also read about what it takes to be an astronaut. We discussed ways we should use teamwork in the classroom, too.

We finished up our geometry unit this week with an assessment on Friday.  Overall the class did very well.  Look for these to come home next week for you to look over and sign.  

We also had our final round of MAP testing this week.  You will see the results included in the final report card.  

We continue to read Charlotte's Web.  Charlotte has vowed to save Wilbur and has just performed what the Zuckerman's are calling a miracle.  She wrote "SOME PIG" in a web.  What will happen to Wilbur?  Can he be saved from Charlotte's miracle?  Stay tuned!!

We have our final month of desk groups.  This time the students got to choose two classmates that they would like to have in their group.  They were able to sit with at least one.  Here are the group names (Senora Rodriguez contributed the Spanish names):

Have a great weekend!!

Safety Tips!!

This week we read a book called Officer Buckle and Gloria.

In the story, Officer Buckle visited schools and taught them safety tips.  After we read the book, we recorded the tips from the book and brainstormed some tips of our own.  Then the students were given a written assignment to choose their favorite tip and write why it is the most important, stating three reasons.

In reading this week we practiced identifying the author's purpose. The stories we read this week were all about energy.  We learned a lot about the sun's energy and also how wind provides power, too.

In math, we are finishing up our geometry unit.  Next week we will be having a test.  We will be reviewing shapes, fractions and arrays.  

We continued reading Charlotte's Web this week.  We were finally introduced to Charlotte and learned that the plan for poor Wilbur is that he is to be eaten!! Uh Oh!  Will Charlotte be able to save him?  Since we are reading Charlotte's Web, Mrs. Selby designed a great project for us in computers. Each student was assigned a different kind of spider to research.  EWWW!!

In honor of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, we read a book called The Wall.  Then we made a booklet about what Memorial Day means to us.  

Enjoy your family and the great weather this holiday weekend.

Field Trip

This week we ventured out of the classroom on our field trip to The Academy of Natural Sciences.  We got to see many animals.  We even got to pet a bunny, a turtle and a hissing cockroach (but only if we wanted to.)

We learned about dinosaurs and what kind of dinosaurs were carnivores or herbivores.  Then we got to pretend we were archaelogists and we dug through rock to find fossils.

To wrap up our trip, we went into the butterfly room.  We saw several kinds of butterflies just flying around our heads.  I think a lucky few got the butterflies to land on them.

Later that day we got a special visit from an author and photographer, Michael Patrick O'Neill.  He showed us some great photographs taken underwater. The students were engaged and asked some great questions.  

It was a fun week.  Don't forget, tomorrow is Fun Day for our town.  Hope to see you all there.

Cinco de Mayo!!

This week the class celebrated Cinco de Mayo with the Spanish teacher, Senora Rodriguez.  They were treated to snacks and some fun dancing!!

In reading, our essential question was "Why are rules important?"  We read about rules that towns have as well as rules for the government.  We learned about the Constitution and several American Symbols.

In math, we spend this week dividing shapes into parts.  The term "area" was introduced and we found the area by counting squares inside a rectangle.  We focused on the terms columns (up and down) and rows (side to side).  We also started to recognize fractions by dividing shapes in half.

We continued in social studies to discuss how community leaders are elected and what responsibilities they have. They can make laws, pay for services or build something new.

We spent some of our time this week preparing for a special day this weekend.  Sorry...no pics ;)

Have a great weekend especially to all the Moms!!! 

Superheroes to the Rescue!

This week in writing our topic was to write a narrative about yourself as a superhero.  We had some interesting adventures and even more interesting villians.  Then the students created an image of themselves as a superhero.

Our essential question this week was "How Can We Protect the Earth."  We read a story about a class that wanted to enter an art contest but did not have enough art supplies. They decided to reuse scrap paper from the class to make paper cranes and in turn won the contest.  This theme tied into our science lessons this week when we celebrated Earth Day.  We made brainstormed ways to save the Earth and then made posters.

In math, we continued learning about shapes and their attributes.  We added some 3-dimensional shapes to our shape booklet.

We started a new unit in social studies and voting for community leaders.  We did a mock election in class and voted for a candidate based on inside games.  The candidates positions were either Four Corners or Seven-Up.  Four corners won and at the end of the day we played the game.

We had a special visitor this week.  His name was Bill and he brought along some friends...scary friends if you ask me.  He told us how these animals would never harm people, but people are harmful to them.

Have a great weekend.