Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
We are nearing the end of our Mystery Unit.  Each mystery group will finish reading the final chapters of their mystery and discuss the outcome.  During each group meeting, students continue to share clues from their "clipboard" and possible suspects they've recorded.  Last week we discussed the importance of the setting.  We also looked at patterns in characters' behavior.  Students continue to practice supporting their claims with evidence from the text.  They began to work on completing a Detective Case Report.  Look for an example of a finished case report next week.

Writing Workshop
Now that students have written an introduction to their Personal Essay, they have begun to write two small moment stories, which support their opinion statement.  Each small moment story is meant to more clearly explain the student's big idea.  Our goal is to finish our first drafts this week.

Math
We worked on telling time with students last week.  We reviewed telling time to the hour and half-hour and practiced telling time to five minutes and to the minute.  Students also learned how to tell time before and after an hour.  Telling the minutes before an hour was tricky for some students.  For example, if the clock read 7:34, students are expected to know it is 34 minutes after the hour and 26 minutes before the hour.  Students learned to check their work by adding the minutes after and before (they should add up to 60).  We will continue to work on telling time in class.

Science
Through an investigation students discovered the difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque materials.  They also learned about refraction.  Students discovered light bends (refracts) when it passes from one material to another.  Students' favorite discovery, however, was optical illusions.  Optical Illusions can use color, light, and patterns to create images that can be misleading to our brains.  They trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real.  Students enjoyed watching the following YouTube video...



All-Star of the Week
Megan was our Amazing All Star last week!  The students loved her sharing sack items and pictures.  We really liked her favorite picture, which was an action shot of her playing soccer.  Students were familiar with her favorite book, The Elf on the Shelf, and enjoyed listening to her read it aloud.  They also enjoyed her parent letter, titled The Shiny Object.  We learned more about Megan while listening to a fun story :)  Megan loved having a special lunch with her mom on Friday.

Gingerbread House Workshop
Students had a lot of fun building and decorating their gingerbread house!  Thank you so much to all of our volunteers who helped students build, decorate, and clean up!!  We couldn't do the gingerbread workshop without you!