Week in Review: December 12-15

This batch of pictures should make up for not having any photos last week! I hope you enjoy reading about our last week of school for 2016!

In language arts, we continued on our expository writing. Before taking a unit assessment over non-fiction reading skills, we reviewed with around the room task card challenges. We ended the week with some time on iStation and a fun holiday-themed writing activity.

We didn't have a lot of time for science this week, but the time that we did, we made sure it was fun. Students participated in Hour of Code, and then we learned about earthquakes, and modeled earth's tectonic plates during an earthquake. This was extra fun because it involved graham crackers and frosting!

In math, we are still working on geometry with lots of shape sorting of 2-dimensional shapes as we learned about rhombuses, trapezoids, and parallelograms. The students were excited to move onto 3D shapes and to try their hand at building some with pipe cleaners and straws. We wrapped up the week by taking a set of iPads on a geometry scavenger hunt around the school. When we come back to school, students will use the photos they took to create a slideshow demonstrating their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes.

This was also a week of fun special events. We enjoyed a lesson on E-books in the library,  a visit with our kindergarten buddies, and of course, the party on Friday.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to seeing everyone in the new year!

Week in Review: December 5-9

This entire week got away from me without a single photo, I am so sorry. I know you all look forward to seeing your kids online, so I promise lots of photos next week!

For language arts, we wrapped up our PBL research, organized our notes, and began working on writing well-structured informational paragaphs. We will continue this writing next week. We also logged onto iStation for reading skills practice for the first time, and students reviewed fact and opinion as well as cause and effect.

In math, we had our unit assessment over fractions and division, and then began a unit on geometry with 2D and 3D shapes. The geometry unit will continue through next week and after winter break.

After a science test on Monday over forces and motion, we began learning about landforms. This easily blended with our social studies unit on maps and geography. On Thursday and Friday, students took a "world tour" to learn about geography and culture in four major cities.

Just a reminder that next week is only a 4 day week for the students. The last day of school for the fall semester is Thursday December 15, and students will come back to school on Tuesday January 3. Because it is a short week, we will not have homework or a spelling list next week. We will have our winter party on Thursday at 1:30, and as always, you are welcome to join us.

Week in Review: November 28 - December 2

It was great to see everyone after the Thanksgiving break! It's so hard to believe that we now only have 9 school days until winter break. This first semester has just flown by!

This week in math, we have been working on division. We have focused on the 2s, 4s, and 8s facts, and also learned how to use strip diagrams as a model for solving division word problems.

Division review games 

Using linking cubes to solve division problems

Building strip diagrams to solve division problems

In social studies, we have moved on from government, and into maps / geography. We spent some time just exploring features of maps, atlases, and globes to get a general overview.

In science, we are nearing the end of our unit on force and motion, and enjoyed a fun activity on Friday with Mrs. Swyers class. Students used rubber band slingshots to send toy cars across the common area to learn about pushes and pulls.

 

In language arts, we have been continuing our PBL research and discussing the difference between facts and opinions, and causes and effects.

Matching causes and effects

PBL research with non-fiction books

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!