Week in Review: October 6-10

This week in science, we began studying states of matter. We will continue this study next week by exploring ways to test different properties of matter, such as temperature and density. We had two guest speakers during our science time as well. The kids really enjoyed the Geography Gameshow on Tuesday, and we all learned a lot about the United States.

On Friday, we were excited to hear from a real scientist about electricity. It was a HAIR-RAISING experience....ask your kids what I mean by that.

It was a busy week in reading and writing workshops, as we finished up thick and thin questions. We then moved into inferencing skills (using clues from the text, along with what we know, to come to a logical conclusion or prediction). I placed photos around the room and students had to infer what was going on in the picture. They did really well at this skill! 

Towards the end of the week, we reviewed the elements of stories including setting, plot and characters. Next week, we will delve into more detail on character development. Students are coming along nicely with their personal narrative rough drafts. We have had mini-lessons on strong leads, vivid verbs, and incorporating our five senses into our writing. We also took one day of writing to review common rules of capitalization and punctuation, so from here on out, I am going to expect to see proper capitalization in punctuation in all of their written work.

In math, we wrapped up our subtraction unit and spent two short days on perimeter. 

Next week, we will spend Tuesday reviewing for a test on Wednesday. The test will cover place value, addition, and subtraction. Our next unit will begin on Thursday and is a quick review of telling time, then moving into elapsed time (which will most likely be a new skill for them), followed by money.

A few news items for next week...don't forget that Monday is a school holiday for the kids. Teachers will be working, as it is a staff development day for us to focus on our Project Based Learning projects. I will be out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to attend Capturing Kids Hearts training. Our entire school is being trained is this fabulous initiative, along with many other schools in the district. If you want to know more about it, you can read details here.

I hope the kids enjoy their 3 day weekend, and while I am excited about the CKH training, I will miss my class and look forward to seeing them on Friday!