Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Last Day of April

This month we celebrated Earth Day by participating in a week long event.  Students helped plant a tree, we listened to guest speakers, picked up garbage on the school grounds, and designed and created an outfit out of recycled material that Ms. Wall wore to a dance.

Students have begun to play kickball in gym class and at recess for intramural sports.

We have completed our language arts and reading MAPs tests.  The math one will be completed next week.

In math, students are wrapping up the unit on measurement as we continue to work in guided math groups.

During music, students will be creating a 5 line poem called the Carnival of Animals.

In literacy, we are completing our study on energy sources, like light and sound, and we will be moving to our final inquiry on plants and animals.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Open House

Just a reminder that conferences are being held on Tuesday, April 30 from 4:30 to 7:30. During that time, I will hold an open house for all students and parents from 5:30 to 7:00. Hope to see you there.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Thursday Update

This Monday we had our first MAPs test, Language Arts.

This week we had different assemblies for Earth week.

 Today in S.E.L., we learned to make good decisions and we wrote letters to the third grade and to the students at Lincoln.

Today we got some library books for the first time in two weeks.

We finished reading guided reading books and also took a quiz.

Yesterday we picked up the garbage on the playground.

Typed by Austin M.





Friday, April 19, 2013

Friday Post

Students watched Ms. Wall model outfits for an Earth Week "Project Runway."  We are proud to say our outfit was voted the top one, and Ms. Wall will model it at the dance Friday night.

We practiced another safety drill, this time for a tornado.

Students completed different mini-inquiry projects for Earth Week, as they worked with other students from Team Innov8ors. 

Our spelling words this week revolved around Earth Week.

Students did a writing sample from the perspective of an animal that was near the BP oil spill.

MAPs test starts on Monday with language arts.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Long Time No Post

It has been awhile since our last entry, but we have been busy working.

In math, students have begun a unit discussing measurement.  We started our unit by reading a book called Millions to Measure.  The main idea of the book was the development of different measurement systems.  One topic has been our ability to convert between units.  We have also looked at both the customary and metric units.  Students have begun to calculate elapsed time while others began to work with volume of a prism.

In reading, students finished reading Owls in the Family.  Stormy continues to read their book.  Students have been practicing making inferences based on headings, finding the main idea and supporting details, and writing summaries.  We have been using non-fiction books that discuss light, sound, and electricity to practice these skills.

In writing, to go along with our inquiry unit on energy, students read an Achieve3000 article called "Oil Spill in the Gulf."  This article gave us background knowledge to help write a narrative from the point of view of an animal experiencing the BP oil spill.  We have practiced some figurative language techniques, like simile, metaphor, and personification, that we will look to add to our writing.  Also, we have completed our light/sound timelines on timetoast.com and a paragraph description of them.

We have been preparing for activities that will occur during our Earth Week coming up.

MAPs testing has begun, and we want all students to do their best and reach their growth goals.