Weekly Update 4/26/19

We have started a new social studies unit on government. This week students learned about how citizens elect government leaders help solve problems in communities by making laws, deciding how to spend money, and making decisions about whether or not to build new buildings. The children also are learning about the differences between the local, state, and federal levels of government.

In math, students are learning about measuring the length of of a variety of objects. This week's focus was on the customary units of inches, feet, and yards. The children worked in teams to measure "inch worms" that were hidden around the classroom. They also practiced measuring many objects in our classroom, and even measured themselves! Students also compared the sizes of objects and subtracted to find out how much longer or shorter the items were.

Students are now working in book clubs for reading. Each group voted on a novel they wanted to read and discuss. The children are putting all of the skills they have learned throughout the year to good use when they have their discussions. After each chapter, they are making connections and predictions, as well as asking and answering questions about the plot. Students are also working on summarizing the chapters during their discussions and helping each other to clarify tricky words. In addition, we read a Scholastic News about the importance of reducing waste, which helped us review what we learned about Earth Day.

We continued to try out some new forms of poetry in writing this week, including concrete (shape) poems, couplets, and diamante poems. Students are now beginning the process of finalizing all of their poems and selecting poems they would like to publish into an anthology. Each student is also recording at least one poem on Seesaw and typing at least one poem into Google Slides.