Week in Review: January 5-8

Happy New Year! I was so excited to see everyone again this week and hear about their two week holidays. After some sharing on Tuesday morning, we got down to business. For a short 4 day week, we got a lot accomplished!

In math, we are beginning a unit on geometry and quickly reviewed 2D shapes before moving into 3D shapes. To show off our understanding, students built 2D and 3D shapes out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

We did a fun geometry scavenger hunt, and students worked with partners to create a Google slide presentation of their findings.

Students also worked in small groups to complete a challenge called "The Four Triangle Problem." Out of 14 possible solutions, our class was able to find 13 of them...very impressive!

In science, we are studying landforms and rapid changes to the earth's surface (earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes). We will have one experiment for each of the these three changes, and we fit the landslides in this week. Students enjoyed the beautiful weather outside on Thursday as they built mountain models, and then observed what happened after a lot of rainfall, causing a landslide.

Building a model of a mountain.

Excessive amounts of rain can cause a landslide!

In language arts, we are reading biographies and trying our hand at expository writing. We tied this writing in with social studies as we focused on personal growth. Students each chose "one little word" on which they plan to focus this year. This is similar to goal or resolution setting, but a bit broader. Students wrote expository paragraphs about why they chose their word and then had a fun time illustrating their chosen words on Friday.

We will continue with these same units next week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!