Our Last Full Week...

...and what a week it has been!  We are grateful that the weather has been cool so that we can buckle down and finish up our curriculum.

In Science we wrapped up our Electricity unit with an assessment on Tuesday.  Mrs. Merten was IMPRESSED with how well everyone did on this!  We have done many experiments with magnetism and electricity including making electromagnets.

building circuits

a series circuit

We were excited to use our knowledge of electricity today to create a one of a kind, hands free flashlight.  Mr. Adams (our engineer in residence and Mrs. Adams's husband) came in to review the design process with us. We created a design, tested it, and then redesigned our products.  We even created an advertisement for our flashlights.

Mr. Adams sharing some information about the design process.

Our first try

first try

designing

trying out our design

Here are our final products.  You can see other pictures from our project in the twitter feed to the right.

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our study of the southwest. On Monday, we will have our wrap up of the Regions of the US unit with our "Amazing Race".  The children will be "competing" in a variety of challenges (one from each region we studied, and one from Washington, D.C.).  They will also need to compete in a "Pit Stop" for each region- matching the states and capitals for that region with their teammates.  This is usually a really fun way to wrap up our US studies.

We are wrapping up Reader's Workshop for the year with some end of the year book talks, and  year end reflections.  We also set some summer reading goals.  We were excited to get books from Mrs. Richards this week to begin our Summer Reading (Thank you to the PCC!).

We are working diligently to finish our expert pieces before the end of the year!  We have really enjoyed writing these, and are excited to share what we know with our friends (and maybe our second grade friends if time allows)! Some students have chosen to type these pieces at home. This is their choice, and not required at all.

Of course, Thursday was a beautiful day for Sports Day!  We have a new feature on our blog- the "tweets".  Yesterday, Mrs. Merten was tweeting all sorts of pictures of us playing the games and participating in the activities.  Check it out and you can see our fun!