|
Dear families, Sorry about this delay in posting. The students finished the blog on time, but this teacher had her hands a little full on Friday. Without further ado, here are my students' posts. Enjoy! Science by Cora, Sam and Violet In science we have been working on Project Lead The Way (PLTW.) Project Lead The Way is a website with different things you can learn about. The thing we are learning about on PLTW is waves. We are not learning about the waves in the ocean but rather sound waves, and other waves in the air. Some new words we learned about waves are current, amplitude, trough, wavelength, frequency, and crest. In my opinion waves are a little difficult to understand and a little complicated when you first start learning about them. But overall they are still fun and interesting to learn about. We did a project where we made sound waves. The materials we used were a plastic cup, plastic wrap, a rubber band, and a speaker. What we did was cut the bottom of the cup. Then we put the plastic wrap on the top of the cup tightly. We tied the plastic wrap with the included rubber band. Then we put the little speaker underneath the cup. After, we put salt on the plastic wrap and turned on the speaker. Then the salt all went together. It was very cool! You might be wondering what sound we used when we turned on the speaker. We used a sound wave simulator. The website the simulator was on is: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/waves-intro/latest/waves-intro_en.html. We got the sound from the sound waves option. It was very fun. We have a PLTW packet we have to fill out and there was a page we had to do after the activity. The questions were asking us to experiment by doing different things with the project. Last week we were learning how the waves worked and we had a different simulator we were using. The link is: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/wave-on-a-string/latest/wave-on-a-string_en.html. I would recommend checking out the links! Math by Pepper, Abby S. and Emily Hello parents and students! This week in math we are working on different angles, how to measure angles, circumference diameters and the radius of a circle. The circumference of a circle is the distance around a circle, cylinder, or widest part of a sphere. The diameter of a circle is a line segment between two points on a circle that passes through the center of the circle. The radius is any line segment that extends from the center of a circle to a point on the circumference of the circle. We have also been talking about angles, but today I will be telling you about protractors, and how we’ve learned to use them. We have learned about these protractors that on the top there is a number of degrees on the bottom it is like a centerline. There’s a bottom and top line and they both show degree. They both go from 0 to 180. We have learned how to measure angles and create different types of angles. We have practiced in our books. That helped us learn how to use it. An angle is "the figure formed by 2 rays or line segments that share an endpoint, often measured in terms of the amount of rotation (expressed as some number of degrees) needed to superimpose one of those rays or line segments onto the other. Ray: a set of connected points that continues in one direction without end. Acute angle: an angle with a measure of less than 90 degrees and a measure greater than 0 degrees Daily 5, by Emmy, Abby Z. and Breanna In daily five we’ve been working on a book club, we all are separated by the book we've chosen. Pepper and I (Emmy) have been reading “Because of the rabbit” by Cynthia Lord. The book is about this girl named Emma who is home schooled with her bother but one day Emma’s brother wanted to go to public school, and from that day on she hasn’t hanged out with her bother. One night Emma’s dad gets a phone call about a bunny that is stuck in this lady’s fence. I (Abby Z.) have been reading "El Deafo", about this girl named Cece who got meningitis and she loses her hearing. She goes to a school with kids like her and a friend, but then she has to move. She got really sad about it, she goes to school but nobody is like her so she gets a new friend named Laura who is really bossy, and that’s all I’m telling you. I’m (Bree) reading "Save me a seat" and it’s about a Indian boy and an American boy who I think are going to be friends in the end of the book, and they both have different points of view in the book. Thank you for reading Ms Willinski’s class blog!
0 Comments
Dear families,
This week we are back in full swing. After some adjustment on Monday, the students got back to deep learning and participation. Take a look at this week's review from my students' voices. Math, by Cora, Sam, Lilly and Violet In Math this week we have done many things. One thing we have started in math this week is geometry. We’ve been working on the different types of angles like right angles, obtuse angles, acute angles, and other more complicated ones. A right angle is an angle with the measure of exactly 90 degrees. An obtuse angle is an angle with a measure greater than 90 degrees and less than 180. An acute angle is an angle with a measure greater than 0 degrees and less than 90. An zero angle is an angle whose measure is exactly zero degrees. We have been using shape blocks to measure how many degrees an angle is. We have been using the blocks in our math pages. We also did a pre-assessment to get ourselves ready for the assessment. After we finished the pre-assessment we did a reflection sheet. The reflection sheet showed the questions and we gave the answer, and If you got the question right you put a checkmark in the box that says I can do this already, if you got it half of them wrong, you put a checkmark in I can do this sometimes, and if you got all of them wrong you put a check in I need to learn this. Once we did the pre-assessment we answered similar questions in the post-assessment, like adding with time, liters and milliliters, complete ratio tables, solve standard algorithm problems and much more. Science, by Abby Z. Emmy and Breanna This week in science we have been learning about PLTW (project lead the way). In PLTW we’ve been learning about waves and the properties of light. We are learning about amplitude, wavelength, crest and trough. The amplitude is the height of the wave, the wave is a triangular shape and if you put a ruler, you are measuring the height of the wave. The wavelength is measuring one wave to another. The crest is the highest point of the wave. Trough is the lowest point of the wave. For one of the activities we all stood up and formed a circle, we made waves like in the ocean, we had to do low amplitude, high amplitude, low wavelength and high wavelength and we found out that it’s harder to do high amplitude and high wavelength. Another thing that we have been using in science is a website called phet.Colorado.edu. This simulator can measure how long the waves are, it can also make waves, you can also change the amplitude and the frequency, the frequency changes the wavelength and makes the waves bigger. Daily 5, by Pepper, Abby S. and Emily This week in Daily Five we are working on Greek Mythological Allusions, and an organized Vocabulary checklist. What I mean by ‘Vocabulary checklist’ is a checklist with a bunch of word work/Vocabulary practice boxes that you need to complete and check off. You need to complete and check off all the boxes by the end of the week. The things we need to complete include; complete the vocabulary sheet (a sheet with questions about the words of the week), the cootie catcher (a fortune teller), postcard (a ‘postcard’ to Mrs. Willinski about a word of the week), the graffiti wall (a wall of sticky notes using the vocabulary words in separate sentences), POP (a fun game where you have to collect word cards by spelling and giving the definition of a word), and last but not least, writing word and definition in my journal. In daily five we are also learning about GREEK MYTHOLOGY. In Greek Mythology we learn about Greek gods and the allusions to them. First I will talk a little about MEDUSA: Medusa was an evil gorgon. She had snakes for hair, and in some stories she had a snake-like torso. Medusa could turn a person into stone with her eyes, so when she looked at someone, that person turned into stone. The next Greek myth is ACHILLES. When Achilles was a baby he was dunked in water that provided protection for the child. His mum had held him by the heel and because of that, the water hadn’t touched his heel. One day Achilles went into war, near the end of the TROJAN WAR someone shot Achilles in the heel and then Achilles died. The last Greek myth is PANDORA. Pandora was a gift from the gods to earth. One day Zeus sent a box to earth with an instruction “Do not open”. Pandora was longing to see what was inside the chest, when Pandora opened the box evil spirits were flying out of it! After the evil, one little cloud was hanging over the chest. The cloud was hope. Hello there this week we have learned about Mythical Allusions. We have learned that an Allusion is a figure of speech which is brief and references an event, time or place. We have learned "She opened Pandora’s box", "candy is their Achilles heel" or "that boy has the Midas Touch". Pandora’s box is a saying that means that somebody can start something that has bad consequences, but you still have hope. Achilles heel references to having a weakness, like maybe candy or playing with electronics. And Midas Touch goes to a story a wise and greedy man who was given the chance to make a wish and chooses everything he touches to become gold. That’s just some of the many allusions we have learned about and there’s probably more to learn. We all hope you like the blog!! Dear families, Read this week's blog post through my students' voices. Have a fantastic spring break! Math, by Pepper, Emily and Abby S. Hello, hola, and Bonjour! In Math we are working on arm spans, hand lengths, line plots, bar graphs, tables, and last but not least words for analyzing data! Which include; minimum, maximum, range, mode, and median. When we are talking about the minimum we are basically saying, “The smallest element of a set.” So in a set of numbers like: 2 3 3 5 7 8 8 and 10 the minimum would be 2 because it’s the smallest. When we are talking about maximum we are basically saying “ the largest element of a set.” So the opposite of minimum. Example: in a set like this; 2 3 3 5 7 8 8 the maximum would be 8. Another thing that’s very important when talking about analyzing data is the range. The range is; The difference between the greatest and the least values in a data set, Example: 4 6 7 8 8 11 13 {13 - 4 = 9} So the range would be nine. The word Mode is also important when we talk about analyzing data, The word Mode means: the value (or values) that appear most often in a set of data. Example: 4 6 7 8 11 11 13 It would be 11 because there is more elevens than any other number. And last but not least, Median; the middle value of an ordered set of numerical data in a set with an even number of data points, the median is the average of two middle points. Example: 4 6 7 8 8 11 13.We have also measured our hand spans and arm spans. We had organized that data beginning with a table. It organizes the data by putting the students name on one side and their arm length on the other side. It wasn’t organized in any way, which made it hard for us to find the maximum and the minimum. After learning a couple different ways to show it, we decided the easiest one had been a line plot. We all wrote our name on a sticky note, we made a line plot that went from 50-63 inches, we had put x’s on top of the length we had. The mode had been 53 inches which had four x’s. Arm span is another way of saying “the length between one hand to another.” Tip: when measuring your arm span you always start with your middle fingers because they are the longest finger on your hand. For example if you measure your left palm and your other palm you’re not going to get the right answer, you’ll always get a shorter answer because they are closer together than your middle fingers are. Hand spans are a little easier to understand because you only have to measure from your thumb to your pinky finger and that’s how long your hand span is! Tip: round the measurement to the nearest half inch of the ruler you’re using. Anyway we always have fun! Trickster Tales Celebration, Emmy and Bree This week we had a celebration for finishing our Trickster Tales writing that we worked on for 10 weeks guided by our writer-in-residence Motoko. Motoko presented a slideshow of the drawings we made. From each class there was two students who shared a bit of their story, from our class, it was Cora and Steven who shared, from Mrs. Keenan's class, Jackson and Madi shared, from Mrs. Rutkowski's class, Giana and Josh shared. After, the parents came upstairs so they could hear the other students’ stories. Daily 5, Cora, Sam, Violet and Lilly (and guest poets :) In Daily 5 this week we’ve been doing a few different things that include, Word Work, Greek Mythology, and Poetry. This week in Daily 5 we have been sort of finishing up our poetry. We aren’t completely done with poetry but we are finishing up the important things in it. If you choose poetry in Daily 5, you can either cut and glue poems you need to put in your poetry journal, or write your own poems. In daily 5 this week we started working on Greek Mythology. We are doing an assignment on Greek Mythology. We have to read a book about a Greek hero and then we have to answer a few questions. You also have the choice to do it independently or with a partner of your choice. We were assigned books on Greek Mythology in Epic and we are able to choose any you would like. The options are Achilles, Icarus, Pandora, and many others. The assignment requires you to write about which story you chose and answer questions about the characters, setting, plot, and theme. The words of the week for Word Work are enlarge ( means to grow bigger ) investigate (to look more into a subject) procedure (a way of doing something) and typical (what you do in your everyday life.) (Mrs. Willinski: To celebrate National Poetry Month, your children have been creating amazing poems in their journals. A few of them have volunteered to share in this blog. Enjoy!) Colors By Emmy Red orange, yellow, green, blue and purple all the colors of the rainbow. If you look around you the colors they're sounds. The colors are apart of everything your dreams too. Love I red orange are butterflies, yellow is the sun, green are leaves, blue is the sky and purple are flowers in the leaves with the sun right on her with the sun in the sky and the butterfly flying so high in the sky loving his life. The Best Shot! By Matthew Ukpo Seven seconds on the clock then I made my shot. And instantly my team is on top, now four defenders towards me. They all flop, as the announcer observing saying can he be stopped! When my team wins I barely have a thought all I know is I’d worked a lot. Dreams By Breanna Romano Dreams Dreams are your imagination playing tricks on you One second you could be in the sky floating on the clouds and the next you could be swimming in the ocean with mermaids or on a tropical island. Your dreams are beautiful Blue By Abby Zalenski Blue is the sound of water dripping from a waterfall. Blue is a taste of cotton-candy it feels light and soft in your mouth The Window By Abby Zalenski It’s dark and black there’s a shadow behind the window black and scary I see I get out of bed and under my feet I see some glass that scares me and noises I look out the window to see my dad is trying to scare me. Red By Jake Stone Red is like a taste of strawberry Jolly Rancher Red is like the smell of sweet Red is a beautiful color Red feels like a bumpy road Red is the sound of cake Dogs By Abby Zalenski Cuddly, soft playing, barking, running run and play as you Pups Two Voice Poem By Abby Zalenski I am a monkey I am a panda High in the trees Laying on the ground And I’m a panda I hate the sun I love the sun I’m as lazy as a pig I’m fun as a roller coaster WE ARE TWO OPPOSITES I’m a monkey I'm a panda Life of a Book By Emily Moore Crumpled and rumpled, shipped and ditched the life of a book is hard to accomplish, I wait on the shelf that nobody goes to but the few people that come look at me and turn away to isle three where books of all kinds get taken away while I lay here day after day. Maroon By Emily Moore Maroon is like a mood, sort of red sort of purple. Now red is the color of madness, and purple is a mix of sadness and sleepiness. Maroon is like waking up and going to work and finding out that you forgot something and you don’t quite know what that “thing” is. Maroon is like smelling a fire and the slightest crackle you get from it. Maroon is rough yet soft to the touch. Yellow By Pepper Langley Yellow, Yellow is the sound Of birds tweeting in the morning Yellow tastes like biting into a vanilla cupcake or like a sugar cookie. Yellow is the feeling of sand between your toes. Water By Pepper Langley Water is a wet, flowing liquid that runs faster than any human, water can be warmth like a hot tub in the winter or chilling like the ocean in the summer. Water is water Too Fast By Pepper Langley No, life’s too fast I was seven then blinked and three years had past Being a kid goes by way too fast So make sure you enjoy it while it lasts My Best Friend By Abby Stover They can rise me high as the sky are as low as you can go but no one is alone cause if you're down I’m around if your mad I am so sad if you're mine I’m as happy as if just ate pie! Other Classroom Events, Pepper and Abby Stover This week we went on a walk to the Taft Library, the Book Club was organized by Mrs. Zalusky and Mrs. Desruisseaux. The library is so close to our school that we can walk there! When we got there a nice librarian greeted us at the door, we went in and sat down, we noticed that there were six books on the table in front of us. The librarian explained that she was going to give us a short summary about each book (without spoiling it) and later we would get to pick which book we want to read in a book club. The books on the table were “El Defo”, “Land of Stories”, “Save Me a Seat” , “The One and Only Ivan”, “The Wild Robot”, and “Because of the Rabbit”. “El Defo” is a book about a bunny who is born almost deaf in one ear and had to get a hearing aid but the thing is she really hates the way it looks, but it’s the only way she can hear so she has to keep it on. But one day she imagines this cool version of herself that still has the hearing aid, so she tries to be more like that version of herself and ends up liking her hearing aid after a while. “The Land of Stories” is about two kids who fell into this magical storybook and now they’re stuck in the book so they go on an adventure trying to get back to the real world but they end up meeting a lot of fantasy characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. It’s a great fantasy book. “Save Me a Seat” is about one ordinary boy and the other is from India. He had just come to start a life in America. They had nothing in common until a class bully targeted both boys and they worked with each other to cope. “The one and only Ivan” is about a gorilla named ‘Ivan’ that was captured, then put in a zoo in a mall. Ivan was a very talented gorilla. He knew how to do many tricks, but he needed more space to live. One day he escapes the mall, and the book is all about his life. “Because of the Rabbit” is about a girl named Emma. Emma had been homeschooled her whole life and had never been to school. One day she decided that she wanted to try out public school. Emma’s dad worked to help wild animals. One day he had gotten a call about a wild rabbit stuck in a mean lady’s yard. (That call came in the night before Emma started 5th grade) Emma’s dad immediately went to help the rabbit, but the rabbit wasn’t a wild rabbit it was a pet rabbit who lost it’s owner. Emma’s dad tried so hard to find who the rabbit belonged to, but he couldn’t. Eventually the rabbit became Emma’s pet and best friend. It wasn’t the best friend Emma had imagined but it was even better! “The Wild Robot” is a book about a robot named Roze who ended up on deserted island because of a boat crash. Roze eventually understood how to communicate with those around her. She learned to develop feelings for the creatures and the wild life. Which book would you choose for the book club? This week we also had community reader come and read to us. His name is Sean Nicholson who read the book “What the Road Said ” by Cleo Wade, with illustrations by Lucie De Moyencourt. The story is about a little boy who lives in the city and a road appears out of nowhere. One day he asked the road questions like “ How do I start?” “What if I get scared?” The road would answer “ The road smiled and said you have already started” and “ That is okay. You are brave.” We think the theme of the story is about even if you are scared, afraid or confused you can move forward and be a leader. Thank you Mr. Sean for reading this to all of us! (Mrs. Willinski: I think you will agree with me that my students are amazing writers. Take a look at this week's slide show!) Emily, Pepper and Abby S. - In math we are doing time measurements, and length measurements. We are also working on strategies. The strategy we are using is number line. The reason why we are using this method is because we can’t use the Standard Algorithm to add/subtract time right because if we use the Standard Algorithm we would not get the right answer. If we use Standard Algorithm we would have to change sixty seconds into one hundred seconds and that would mess up the whole thing. We are talking about two different types of milestone measurements; Time and length. When we are talking about time we are using milestones like: decades, centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. One the other hand when we are talking about measuring length, we use these types of words: Kilometers, meters, centimeters, millimeters, feet, inches. We’ve also talked about some the highest, deepest and longest places on earth like the Nile or Mississippi River. Anyways, we are all having lots of fun with these new measurements. Emmy, Abby Z and Breanna - In book fair we went to the library to buy books, posters and bookmarks. We are learning how to use the app TestNav, we learned the controls and the tools. TestNav is the app we will be using to do MCAS next week. Yesterday we had a practice test for MCAS. Today we tried organizing our own schedule at our own time doing the things that we wanted to do. Mrs. Willinski gave us two lists, one of Must Do's and another of Can Do's, and we had time to plan and organize what to do first, second, and next. We could work with a partner or independently. Dear families, Here are this week's learning adventures through the voice of my students: (Abby S., Pepper and Emily) In social studies we have been learning about the Vikings: a group of Norse explorers, traders, warriors and hunters from Scandinavia. We watched a video with lots of information about the Vikings. Norse is an old language that the Vikings spoke in around 100 C.E. (C.E means Current era). The video also told about a Viking named Erik the Red who lived in Iceland. He got into a fight with his neighbor over furniture! Can you believe that? And that act resulted in the death of a few people people, and because Erik was involved he got exiled which means he basically got banned from the country (Iceland). But when Erik died, his son Leif Erikson (like Erik’s son) went back to their home country Iceland. That’s all we know about the Vikings right now but we have a lot more to learn and we will keep updating you soon! (Abby Z., Emmy and Brianna) On daily 5 we've been working on poetry and figurative language. In Figurative language we've been learning about Simile. It means comparing using like/as. We also have been learning about metaphor, and allieration. Metaphor means compares without using like/as. Alliteration means first sounds repeat. In daily 5 we have been working on word work, The words for this week are absorb, strategy, directly, and sequence. On Friday we have to do an assessment on the four words every week. Every day Mrs. Willinski gives us five options to choose from. There’s read to self, read to someone, work on writing, listen to reading. We do it on Epic and there’s word work we have already told you about word work and there’s nothing much for listen to reading. Work on writing is when we can do personal narrative. Personal narrative is when we can write what we have experienced in life. We are writing poems in poetry and reading poetry. (Sam, Cora, Joshua and Cam) In math we have also been doing a new math game called “Roll and Subtract.” What you do in the game is, you roll three dice and choose what order the numbers are in. Then you subtract that from 1000. The goal of the game is to get closest to 0 without going into the negatives. Today (Friday) we had a checkpoint. It was a review of the strategies and type of equations we’ve been practicing in math. Take a look at this week's pictures! Have a great weekend. Dear Families,
Sometimes things happen that make us rethink the way we are doing things, and what look like disasters turn out into beautiful things. This is what happened today. After spending about 40 minutes writing my blog post this morning, I hit the publish button and the whole post disappeared, gone! I tried refreshing the page, and for ten frustrating minutes I went back and forth on the drafts to see if I could recover the post. To no avail. So I put it aside, and slowly an idea started forming in my mind: What if I asked my students to write the newsletter? After all, I am surrounded by amazing writers! Why am I doing all the work? So I posted the questions to my students, and after explaining to them what the work would entail, and that this was a volunteer activity, ten of my students raised their hands enthusiastically! So with further ado, here is this week's summary, explained through my students' voices: Math Blog, by Emmy, Bree and Abby Z. In math we have been learning different strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems. One of the strategies we have been learning and using is "give and take". Give and take is a simple strategy to use because you take a quantity from one of the numbers to get to a friendly number, and subtract from the other number. We practiced the standard algorithm and adding on the number line. Some of the words we practiced are expanded form, algorithm, number line, and give and take. Number corner is a calendar we use that includes math, right now we have used a input and output numbers where you have to use two different equations that have to go through two times and come out as a different number. Social Studies, by Cora, Sam and Lilly. In social studies the class has been learning about Early European Exploration and Conquest and how they traveled and discovered North America, what they discovered, and what their maps looked like. We did an assignment on Google Classroom and we looked at some of the ships that they used to travel across the sea and we looked at the places they sailed. We’ve been learning about historians in social studies. Historians use Primary Sources to explain their findings. Historians use maps and other historical documents or sources that provide evidence. We’ve also been learning about Vikings and what they did in the past. On a Google assignment we’ve learned about the Viking alphabet, Viking gods, and Viking currency. We’ve been working on Early European Exploration and Conquest this week in social studies. Daily 5 by Abby S. Emily and Pepper In daily five we are working on vocabulary and poetry. If the students choose to work on vocabulary they have a choice of doing independently or with a friend, they can either work on cootie catcher (aka a fortune teller), a sheet of our vocabulary words for the week, or a postcard. The postcard is were they write to Mrs.Willinski about a word of their choice from the vocabulary sheet. They also get to draw a picture of what the word means. In the letter they have to put a greeting, a part of speech, definition, synonym and antonym of the word, and a closing. The sheet of vocabulary is a sheet of our words for the week that include: Vertical, Peer, Criticize, and Succeed. There are also a few questions about the different words, we also have a mini assessment at the end of the week. Some other options they have are: read to self, read with a friend, read on Epic, listen to an audiobook on Epic, work on writing, work on word work, and trickster tales. The teacher also calls about 3-5 students to work with her (usually to read a passage or answer some questions about that passage). In poetry we are wondering and talking about different types and meanings of poems. We’ve also talked about things we know about poetry like: sometimes they rhyme, sometimes they have a meaning that might be a bit deep. And it might be a poem for non violently protest. Some people are asking things like. What is the history of poetry? Where do authors get their inspiration? How many different types of poetry are there? We have read a couple different poems and think about the different meanings of the different poems. We will keep learning about different poems and keep on reading them. Mrs. Willinski always makes it fun! Writing with Motoko is very hard but we all enjoy it very much. I think most of us became inspired to write after one or two visits from Motoko. In Motoko’s class we are writing a short story about a trickster who ends up saving a village from a mysterious creature that was causing a natural disaster. Some of us are writing on our iPads because we are finished with our story so we have to make our final print on our iPads. As you can see, these are amazing posts. I am so thrilled with the result that I have decided that it will be a permanent feature from now on. Now, I would really appreciate it if you could please comment on the blog post, if you can spare a minute. A short positive comment will motivate my co-editors, and it will make their day. They have been so excited in the process of writing the blog post, and I have witnessed amazing collaboration skills. Having a real audience that responds to their writing will do wonders! We are looking forward to hearing from you all! Sincerely, Mrs. Willinski's Class Dear Families, Getting back to the routine hasn't been much of a challenge for my students. Since Monday my students have shown that they can work hard and enjoy learning as well. In math the students have brushed off their addition and rounding skills, and have practiced reading numbers through a couple of math games and some whiteboard practice. With the game "Target One Thousand" students had to add two three-digit numbers to get the closest possible to one thousand. In the game "Add, Round and Compare", students find the difference between the sum of two three-digit numbers, and the sum of the same three-digit numbers rounded to the nearest hundred. It's amazing that just by making math a game, or involving a little friendly competition, the students work on important math skills without giving it a second thought. We have also created a gigantic one million mat-mat-mat for our classroom display. All the students collaborated in cutting, glueing and organizing the mat. During reading, this week we have been reviewing the different text features that show up in informational texts, and how they help readers understand the information given. Students have also continued making the choices for their independent reading practice. Like I said before, they got back to our reading routine flawlessly, and it fills my heart with pride when I sit at a table during the rotations to work with a small group, and I look around and see students completely engaged in their independent or partner reading. During small group reading, I've had a chance to set reading goals with each of my students for the next few weeks. Some of the reading goals are: working on more "read to self" throughout the week, find and quote evidence when answering to open response questions about a text, or restate the questions. The enthusiasm for books is palpable, I frequently hear references to the books that they are reading at off times, during snack or dismissal. I see students picking new books because their friends have read that book before and raved about it. I see the progress they are making in their chapter books, how the words "I finished this book, can I go to the lending library?" happen daily. It even made me so happy yesterday that my students yelled at me for stopping our read aloud after two chapters that left us in shock and wanting to know more. But hearing their predictions about what will happen next, or the connections to the stories we have read before makes it all worth it. The deep reading processes that happen in the brain when we read are an essential part of reading, and the sense of being a community of readers is just something that I greatly treasure. During writing, we continue our series of "trickster tales" with our writer in residence Motoko. This week Motoko has taught our students how to write the scene where the main character defeats the mysterious creature by using a non-violent method. The students could choose between using words (a song or a poem to tame the creature), using a magic potion, or challenge the creature to a game. The stories are coming along beautifully! During science, students have learned about the cause of landslides due to erosion, root wedging and ice wedging, and we have been brainstorming engineering ideas to save a town from a landslide, or to prevent it in the first place. Finally, the students have shown their great mentoring skills when reading with the kindergarteners in Mrs. Pilkington's and Mrs. Smith's class during Dr. Seuss' birthday (Read Across America Day). This week I have been slow at taking pictures, but here are a few. Have a great weekend! These past two weeks have been filled with fun, collaboration and learning. In Math, we have finished the unit on fractions and decimals, and during Inspired Learning Day, the students were able to figure out the missing fractions under the Splats, or spots of "black ink" over a collection of fractions, where the students knew the final whole number and that under each splat there was the same amount. During our literacy block, we completed our group work and wrapped it up with an independent assessment on main idea and details, text structure and context clues. During writing, we have continued our trickster tale series with two more sessions with our writer in residence Motoko, and students have been able to add additional descriptive details, learning about the protagonist and antagonist, and how to defeat the antagonist using non-violent action, like using words, a potion or a game. During science, students have learned about sedimentary rocks and fossils, understanding how the earth has changed throughout different eras. These two weeks we have also enjoyed a day of Inspired Learning where students were able to collaborate with others and practice the Portrait of a Learner competencies. Students have shown how effective collaborators, solution seekers, and mindful learners they can be, helping JiJi engineer a Zip Line to go down a mountain and learning from the POL superheroes. Finally, during Valentine's Day, students exchanged valentines and enjoyed some extra snack time. Take a look at these weeks' slide show. Have a great February break! Dear families, I can't believe it has been two weeks since my last post. As you can imagine, we have been really busy in the classroom. All the students have engaged in deep learning and have showed their deep thinking and hardworking skills while taking the i-Ready reading assessment. Here are a few highlights of these two weeks. In Math, the students have continued learning to write, name and understand decimals, and to convert fractions into decimal numbers. Students have also played a couple of math games to practice their decimal skills, and have used based ten pieces to understand the reasoning behind the decimal system. During our Literacy block, I have continued meeting with small groups to work on using Context Clues to figure out the meaning of new words, and we have also learned and practiced understanding the different types of text structures. Students have become very proficient at giving extended and accurate open responses to questions about complex texts, showing their deep understanding of the story. Students have also had the chance to work on their independent reading and writing choices. During our Writer in Residence weekly visit, students have worked on creating dialogue between their main characters and a secondary character, and learning about how to build suspense in their stories. This week, we have also participated in World Read Aloud Day on February 1st, with the visit our our mystery reader Mrs. Busby, who read to the students the book "I Am Human: A Book of Empathy", written by Susan Verde and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, a sweet reminder that we all make mistakes, and that learning from our mistakes helps us understand and have empathy for others. We love to honor the power of Read Aloud by having a moment each day after lunch to read aloud one or two chapters of our book. We are currently reading "The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle", by Leslie Connor. Finally during Science, we have been exploring if a mountain will last forever, learning about the effects of weathering and erosion on the rocks, and about root wedging and ice wedging. The students ran an experiment shaking sugar cubes 200 times, and writing the results and sharing their findings. In the pictures you will also see your children being fantastic mentor to the kindergarteners in Mrs. Pilkington's class. Just listening to the kindergarteners answering the questions that my students pose about the books they are reading fills me with pride. As a side note, I've given my students a couple of friendly lectures about using their school email to send messages to their friends during school hours, and about the importance of treating the classroom materials with respect. If you have some time this week, you might want to discuss these interesting topics with your child. Take a look at this week's slide show! ,This week my students have been working full speed ahead! In math they have been playing "Racing Fractions", by finding different ways to add fractions with a different denominator and to get to the end of different number lines first. Students have also been introduced to decimal counting, how to write decimals with numbers and fractions, and how to name decimals. Students have been forming decimals using mats, strips and units of the base ten pieces. During our guided reading group sessions, students have learned how to compare and contrast two different types of avalanches by grouping the comparable topics, we have also worked together to find the main idea of the story, and investigated causes and effects in the text. Students have also been introduced to the different types of Context Clues when finding difficult or interesting words, using the acronym "I.D.E.A.S." Inferring, finding the Definition in the text, finding the Explanations, or finding Antonyms or Synonyms. During their independent reading rounds, students have continued working on different choices for reading and writing. During our Trickster Tales writing block, our Writer in Residence Motoko has guided our students in choosing one major natural disaster for their stories, and describing it using the 5 senses. In the afternoon, we have continued reading The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor, and we have explored the different types of lava during our Science unit on the Birth of Rocks. Students have been hypothesizing about why some volcanos have a cone shape and others a shield shape, and how the consistency of the lava affects the type and form of the volcano. Take a look at this week's slideshow! |
AuthorHello! My name is Esther Willinski, and I am a fourth grade teacher in Massachusetts. Join us in our journey through 4th grade! Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|
