February 10th, 2023 - Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

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 Historians use maps and other historical documents or sources that provide evidence.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