No pictures this week, but I did want to give you a quick update of our week. On Monday, in honor of Earth Day, we wrote letters to Mother Earth and created posters about the 3 Rs. Over lunch, we joined Mrs. Swyers class with lunch in our room while watching a live video chat with Jane Goodall about her experience living with chimpanzees. It was a fun, laid back kind of day!
Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with STAAR testing in the morning. On Tuesday afternoon, we watched a video reading of Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax" and on Wednesday afternoon, we began a fun tangram challenge in math.
Thursday we used the laptops all morning and the kids were really engaged in several activities. We studied life cycles of frogs, birds and butterflies, and students chose one to draw in their science notebooks. Next, they learned all of the different ways that caterpillars can protect themselves from predators in their environment. Students used Pebble Go (an online resource provided by our school library) to research different customs around the world and created a main idea / supporting details outline in Google Classroom. If time allowed, students learned some dictionary skills with an online lesson and quiz. And finally, my early finishers enjoyed writing creative poetry with a fun interactive tool online. After a late lunch and afternoon recess (changes in our schedule due to 5th grade STAAR testing), we planted seeds that we will hopefully observe growing over the next few weeks and be able to transplant to our grade level raised garden box.
On Friday morning, students worked with their partners to finish up their adaptations project we began a couple of weeks ago. They then chose to read a Time For Kids on their own or with a partner. Then, I gave them some much deserved extra recess time! During math time on Friday, they enjoyed working with partners again to finish up the tangram challenge from Wednesday and solve some calculator riddles.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Only six more weeks until summer, I can hardly believe it!
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Week in Review: April 13-17
This week in science, we continued our study of adaptations by working with a partner to design an imaginary animal and how it can escape predators, based on a given environment. The kids were very creative! In social studies, students participated in an interactive online activity where they were given a variety of social conflicts and had to choose the best course of action. It was a fun lesson on conflict resolution.
Next week, with STAAR math on Tuesday and STAAR Reading on Wednesday, we are going to take Monday nice and easy and do some fun Earth Day related activities. Please make sure your child gets a good night of sleep on Monday and Tuesday, and eats a healthy, filling breakfast on Tuesday and Wednesday so they are best prepared for the test. If you see any signs of anxiety between now and then, please emphasize that I only expect them to do their best and use the strategies I have taught them. If they take their time, they will excel at this! Most likely, I will not have a blog update next week as our week will not be typical at all.
We have continued to prepare for next week's STAAR test with some fun review activities including two Jeopardy style games in math and reading.
On Thursday, the kids were thrilled to become the teacher and grade MY work on a reading passage. I intentionally completed a reading passage with several errors, and did not always use the best strategies I have taught. They took a little too much glee in finding my mistakes and even took off 5 points (as I do) because I didn't have my name on the paper. They crack me up! :)
On Friday, we met again as a grade level and took a team photo of everyone in their Earth Warriors shirts.
We then split up into stations again like we did last week. My class also decorated collection envelopes. From now until May 15, we are collecting donations to send to Hug It Forward, to help fund a plastic bottle school.
Next week, with STAAR math on Tuesday and STAAR Reading on Wednesday, we are going to take Monday nice and easy and do some fun Earth Day related activities. Please make sure your child gets a good night of sleep on Monday and Tuesday, and eats a healthy, filling breakfast on Tuesday and Wednesday so they are best prepared for the test. If you see any signs of anxiety between now and then, please emphasize that I only expect them to do their best and use the strategies I have taught them. If they take their time, they will excel at this! Most likely, I will not have a blog update next week as our week will not be typical at all.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Week in Review: April 6-10
This week in science we have discussed environments and their populations, and how certain changes can impact the population. Students played a game about an imaginary armadillo population in small groups and recorded how their population changed in a pictograph after a variety of environmental changes.
We had a fun Friday morning with an assembly to honor all of our wonderful parent volunteers, followed by some third grade team time. We allowed the students to choose a station to work on a variety of PBL related projects such as creating designs for bottle cap art, making PSAs about plastic bottle schools, or writing songs / poems about our cause. They enjoyed the freedom to choose based on their own passion!
The students enjoyed using the online Stemscopes tool to review vocabulary terms, answer some basic comprehension questions, and write about what they learned.
In reading, we have continued to read examples of traditional literature, while focusing on important skills such as summarizing and identifying cause and effect. We have also begun our rough drafts of individual realistic fiction stories.
In math, we spent one day on basic financial literacy with an online activity. Students learned about saving, tracking their spending and cutting costs, and the impact of borrowing. We are continuing to review all basic skills as we prepare for the STAAR test on April 21. I'm using lots of strategies to keep them engaged in this review such as dry erase work, small groups, and gallery walks as you can see in the photos below.
In reading, we have continued to read examples of traditional literature, while focusing on important skills such as summarizing and identifying cause and effect. We have also begun our rough drafts of individual realistic fiction stories.
In math, we spent one day on basic financial literacy with an online activity. Students learned about saving, tracking their spending and cutting costs, and the impact of borrowing. We are continuing to review all basic skills as we prepare for the STAAR test on April 21. I'm using lots of strategies to keep them engaged in this review such as dry erase work, small groups, and gallery walks as you can see in the photos below.
We had a fun Friday morning with an assembly to honor all of our wonderful parent volunteers, followed by some third grade team time. We allowed the students to choose a station to work on a variety of PBL related projects such as creating designs for bottle cap art, making PSAs about plastic bottle schools, or writing songs / poems about our cause. They enjoyed the freedom to choose based on their own passion!
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Week in Review: March 30-April 2
This week in science, we began studying living and non-living things and their interdependence. We first observed outside, looking for all of the living and non-living things we could find.
In math, we worked with graphs of all kinds (pictographs, bar graphs, dot plots). We created numerous graphs and learned how to use them to analyze data. We now have two weeks before the STAAR test, and will use these next two weeks of instruction to review all concepts from the year.
In language arts, we have continued reading folktales, fables, myths and legends. We are also working on developing a solid story idea for each student to write their own realistic fiction story. And finally, we wrote letters to the volunteers at the LCRA who made our field trip so memorable.
Enjoy your three day weekend!
We also visited second grade classrooms on Thursday to promote our PBL project and request more 2 liter plastic bottles.
In math, we worked with graphs of all kinds (pictographs, bar graphs, dot plots). We created numerous graphs and learned how to use them to analyze data. We now have two weeks before the STAAR test, and will use these next two weeks of instruction to review all concepts from the year.
In language arts, we have continued reading folktales, fables, myths and legends. We are also working on developing a solid story idea for each student to write their own realistic fiction story. And finally, we wrote letters to the volunteers at the LCRA who made our field trip so memorable.
Enjoy your three day weekend!
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