Week in Review: October 3-7

This week in writing, I stunned the class on Monday by storming into the classroom pretending to be very angry. It was all in fun, and they had a good laugh afterwards when they realized I was only pretending. I do this lesson each year to teach a writing strategy called "Show, Don't Tell." We brainstormed ways that we could describe an angry person in our writing, without actually using the word angry. We talked about what it looked like, sounded like, and felt like, and then we used those descriptive phrases to write a paragraph. Next, I assigned each student a different emotion and they had to brainstorm phrases to describe that feeling...again, without using the actual word. It was a nice break from working on our personal narratives. On Wednesday and Thursday, students took the district writing assessment, which gives them one hour to plan and write a personal narrative, including revising and editing.

In reading, I have finally wrapped up the individual reading testing and students ended the week working in pairs or groups of three to complete a Google Slides presentation about a picture book of their choice. Each presentation had to include certain elements that we have been studying in reading: a story map, character traits with evidence from the text, inferences, and questions they generated while reading. We had time for just one group to share their presentation on Friday, and they did a great job! I look forward to seeing the rest of them next week.

Our first presenters did a great job!

In math, we had our first unit assessment over place value, addition, and subtraction. Next, we began a unit on multiplication, where we will specifically focus on the 2s, 4s, 5s, 8s, and 10s facts, and using that knowledge in problem solving.

Representing multiplication on a number line

Representing multiplication with equal groups

In science, we did a few experiments to learn about mixtures this week. On Friday, we wrapped up our unit on matter with a district assessment. Prior to taking the test, students enjoyed an interactive review on Kahoot. 

Touch and Talk with science vocabulary

Examining birdseed as a mixture

In social studies, we finished our Bio-Cubes on a famous person in history, and those came home on Thursday. We are also learning about empathy, as part of the school-wide character education program.

We closed out week with a fun Friday morning during E-SLOT...building hot wheels race tracks!

I hope everyone enjoys their three day weekend, no school for the kids on Monday. Of course, I will be here and look forward to seeing everyone for our conferences.