Our Week in Review

The last week in February and our first 5 day week all month!  We got a lot accomplished this week.

During Reading, we have been learning about heroes.  We've read several articles about heroes, and have learned that they come in all shapes and sizes.  One student noted, that heroes don't need to wear a costume to be heroic!  While it is interesting to learn about heroes, our academic task is to read "closely" to draw conclusions about a topic by reading many different things. We will be working together next week to continue this, and will finish with an assessment (done online using Google Classroom!).  Stay tuned about how this goes.

We are all in the publishing stages of our essays, and have enjoyed working on this unit.

In Math, we finished our unit on addition and subtraction of fractions, and had our assessment today.  The students did a great job!  The answer sheet will come home today, and if you are interested in seeing the online portion of the assessment, your child can log on to pearsonrealize.com and show it to you.  Next week, we begin to learn about multiplication of fractions and how fractions and decimals are related.

During our study of the Northeast, we worked on a project.  This "Jigsaw" project allowed groups of students to become experts on a certain topic, and then share their expertise with our class.  Student groups worked together to create presentations via Google. Your child received written feedback this week about his/her group work, and you can view the presentation in your child's Google Drive.  Our Northeast assessment was today.  Next week, we will "journey" to Washington, D.C.

FAMILY OPPORTUNITY:
During our study of the Northeast, we discussed maple sugaring and sap.  If your child is interested in seeing maple sugaring in action, there is a program at Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon.  You can register for this program in March, right on the website.  Many thanks to Mrs. Cronin for sharing this opportunity with us!


Spotlight On~
At the school committee meeting this Tuesday, these children had the opportunity to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. What a great way to learn something about  responsibility, public speaking, leadership skills, community service and civic duty.

From the Teacher's Desk:

In school we have been discussing independent reading both at school and at home.  Specifically, we have been talking about how to improve our comprehension by considering the type of thinking we do during our Interactive Read Aloud.  When your child is tracking his/her reading on the weekly reading log, the focus should be on something we have discussed during our Reader's Workshop.  Some ideas for tracking include:

• character traits/character's feelings
• genre
• making predictions
• author's craft (figurative language, cliffhangers, etc.)
• main idea
• summarizing

These are just a few suggestions ~ there are many other ideas that are acceptable.  

Our Week In Review

We had a fabulous week, even though we had more snow!  I know I'm ready for vacation, and hope that this weather pattern ENDS before we return!  Congratulations to our two teams who earned the "Terrific Teamwork" award! We are all working hard at accepting each other and working as a team.

This week we finally finished reading Snow Treasure!  What an adventure! Though this wasn't everyone's favorite book of the year, all of us gave it a rating of 8 or above!  We also worked really hard at discovering evidence about character's feelings, and how feelings and character traits are different.  We are working on these skills in our independent reading as well.

In math we have been moving through addition and subtraction of fractions.  We will have an assessment after vacation.  The children have been working hard on this. All students have been working on math fact practice as part of their nightly homework.  Please encourage your child to  continue this practice.

During our study of the Northeast, we have been working on becoming experts about a specific topic. The children have used non-fiction reading to research Important People, Important Places, Geography, Natural Resources and Native Americans.  They have worked together to create a Google Presentation and will share these on Monday.  If you would like to see what your child's been working on, he/she can show you by logging into Google!

We had a chance to SHOP at our class store today.  Many thanks to those who have sent in items for our store.

During Dance Party Friday this week, we did the Cupid Shuffle!

Below is a survey about vacation for the children to take at the END of the week!  Have a wonderful break.  As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Vacation Survey 

Update

What a chilly two weeks it has been! I has been challenging to keep up our pace with FOUR snow days in the last two weeks!


On Wednesday this week, we had our second visit from Mrs. Silvia, our "anthropologist in residence". Mrs. Silvia works for the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University.  She shared pictures and artifacts from the Inuit tribe. This tribe is found in Canada and the Northwest US.

Curriculum Update:

We have continued to work through many activities.  In writing, we have been working steadily to finish drafting our essays.  We will write our conclusions next week, and will then revise and edit.  Barring any more snow days, we should finish these before vacation.

We also have been reading through our awesome adventure story, Snow Treasure.  Most of us are really enjoying following Peter's adventure.  We plan to finish this book early next week.

We will continue with our study of both weather and the Northeast region of the US next week.


In other News:

Tonight at the Wellesley Booksmith, author Kate Messner will speak about her new book.  This event starts at 7PM.  You can find more information here.


Tomorrow, 2/7/15, is Take Your Child to the Library Day.  I hope many of you can take a trip to Franklin's public library!

Dance Party Friday
Next week, for Dance Party Friday, we will be learning the Cupid Shuffle.  If you would like a head start, check out this video.