Weekly Update 9/27/19

What a busy week we have had! Some of our first Flat Stanleys have come back home from their travels. They visited Louisiana, Utah, and Columbia, MO. Students were able to enjoy an amazing Madco dance performance by the 5th graders, and each child went to their first Spark family day where they each were able to participate in an activity of their interest. Children from our room did a variety of activities, including sports, crocheting for charity, building with Legos, learning how to save endangered animals, cooking, and much more!

We have started Chapter 2 in math, which focuses on number patterns. Students are learning how to skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s, as well as learning how to add equal groups together quickly by skip counting.

In reading, lessons are focusing on how to make predictions about texts both before reading and during reading. The students are learning the importance of making predictions based on evidence from the text and pictures. Children are also enjoying reading books on EPIC, an online digital library for kids, on the iPads.

The children continued to revise and edit their narratives in writing. They learned strategies for writing a strong ending, worked to add transition words to each page, and edited their writing for correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Finally, they participated in peer conferences to give each other feedback.

In science, students continued to work on their dinosaur models by adding modeling clay to demonstrate how the creatures looked from the outside. We also closely studied the tools scientists use and learned that tools have changed and improved over time. Pairs worked together to compare and contrast older and new versions of tools and infer what their functions might be. For the last part of our unit, students will be using a given set of materials to design their own tool that could help paleontologists dig for bones. More to come on this next week!