Happy Holidays!

We wish all of our all-star students & families a happy and healthy holiday break!

Check out the slideshow below from our class holiday party!  Remember, you can double click on the slideshow to view photos individually or click HERE to see the album and download your favorite photos.

Weekly Update

Let it Snow!

Reading Workshop
We continued our mystery unit in class.  Each detective club is nearing the end of its chapter book.  The conversations have been pretty exciting!  Students have taken a lot of good reading detective notes and have come up with a list of suspects.  It will be fun to find out how the mysteries end.  We focused on specific character traits of the characters in our books and practiced providing evidence from the book to support our thinking.  We also learned more about a red herring (clue which throws the detective off track) and discussed possible red herrings in our books.

Writing Workshop
Students have been working on their personal essays.  They began with an opinion statement, such as "I think people should reach to do the impossible."  Next, students worked on writing an introduction.  They also worked on beginning to write two, focused short stories which support their opinion statement.  We hope to finish the essays up in class this week.

Gingerbread Workshop
The class had a lot of fun building and decorating gingerbread houses!  Thank you so much to everyone for donating our needed supplies!  Thanks also to all of the parent volunteers for helping our class build and decorate!  We couldn't have done it without you!!

Science
Students continued to learn more about light from a few explorations in class.  We discovered the difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque materials.  We also learned that light bends when it passes from one material to another.

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
The students are loving our mystery unit!  Each student has a detective case file in which they keep track of important clues, determine possible suspects, and provide evidence from the book to support their suspicions.  Last week they began meeting with their detective clubs to discuss their assigned mysteries.  Students are learning conversation prompts that encourage them to agree/disagree with others, build on each other's ideas, and ask questions of their groups members to clarify their thinking.

A detective club gets ready to discuss their mystery.

Each student has a case file in which they keep their book and keep track of clues and suspects.

Detective Zaits at work!

Brock, Calin, and Orlando are finding some suspicious happenings in their A-Z Mystery!

Writing Workshop
We started a new unit this week, Personal Essay.  Students began the week reading personal essays written by adults and kids.  They learned that personal essays are often focused on a "big idea" and include a message that is learned through a personal life experience.  After determining the "big ideas" in the essays they read, students developed their own idea list for the personal essays they will begin to write.

Math
Students finished up Unit 2 in math last week and took the final test on Friday.  This unit really required students to read story problems carefully and choose the mathematical operation that would make the most sense.  The unit focused mostly on multiplication and division, but there was also some addition and subtraction mixed in some of the story problems.  You will find the corrected test in your child's homework folder this week.  We will now begin Unit 3: Measurement, Time, and Graphs.

Social Studies
We finished our train tour of the Northeast region last week.  What a great trip we had!  Students especially enjoyed our last stops in New York City and Washington D.C.  We pretended to climb to the top of the Empire State Building in NYC and "visited" many monuments and memorials in Washington D.C.  At the end of the tour, students glued all of the souvenirs they collected into their region binders to create scrapbook pages.

We are patriotic on the train to Washington D.C.!

Nanthana writes a travel journal in her region binder after each tour stop.

All-Star of the Week
Jordan was our all-star last week!  He had a fantastic time sharing items from his sharing sack and showing the class his fun photos from his family trip to Kalahari.  Perhaps his favorite day of the week was Wednesday when his mom made a PowerPoint slide show in which she told the class lots of things we didn't know about Jordan.  He also enjoyed a special lunch with grandpa on Thursday.  It was especially fun to hear his Minecraft parody!

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
This week we wrapped up Unit 2, Understanding Characters.  We came to know the main character, Opal, very well from our read aloud Because of Winn-Dixie.  Students learned that secondary characters play an important role.  They often influence the main character or teach the main character something important.  We also talked about how readers learn vicariously alongside the characters in stories.  We thought of the lessons our character, Opal, had learned and wondered how our book might change the way we behave in our own lives.
We also began a new unit of study--Mystery.  Each student picked a mystery chapter book from our class library to add to his/her book box.  As we teach the lessons for this unit, students will need to read from their mystery book to complete the independent reading tasks.  Students learned new vocabulary words which will help them better understand their mystery book as well. Below is a screenshot of our "Detective's Dictionary."

Writing Workshop

This week students learned how to properly punctuate dialogue.  We also reviewed writing a good story ending.  Our writers have been working really hard on adding to their drafts to make them their best piece of writing yet.  Students are currently publishing their drafts.  We will compile these published personal narratives into a class book.  Each student will have a turn bringing the book home to read all of the great narratives written.

Math Workshop

We focused on word problems this week.  There was a homework assignment in which every student but one missed a particular problem.  Students were asked to solve the same problem one morning this week.  All students solved the problem correctly!  The point was to show students they need to read the word problems on homework carefully.  At this point many students are looking for the two numbers in the problem and multiplying if they see two smaller numbers or dividing if they see a larger number with a smaller number.  Because students took the time to read the morning work word problem, they realized the problem was a simple subtraction problem ;-)  

Students also learned how to solve two-step word problems.  These were a little tricky, but we will continue to practice them in class.  The more difficult part of solving the two-step word problems was writing the first-step question.  Students literally had to write a question before solving the problem.  By the end of the week, many students were able to solve the problem but still struggled to write the first-step question.  See an example below...

Lily baked 3 batches of cookies.  There were 12 cookies in each batch.  She gave 16 cookies away to friends.  How many cookies did she have left?

Students were expected to write the first-step question and solve the problem...

How many cookies did Lily bake?  3 x 12 - 16 = 10 cookies

Science

Our next science unit is divided into two parts.  The first part of the unit we will learn about Light & Heat.  During our first lesson, students sorted pictures into two categories: objects that produce light and objects that do not produce light.  Many students were surprised to learn the moon does not produce its own light!  Students also discovered light travels in a straight path.  They used flashlights to learn more about shadows too.  They discovered shadows grow bigger when you move the light closer and shadows grow smaller when you move the light farther away.  Students also had an opportunity to make their own shadow puppets.  The pictures didn't come out great since it was dark in the room, but there are a few below...

All-Star of the Week

We enjoyed listening to Jack's read aloud and looking at the pictures he posted in the classroom, but our favorite part of Jack's week was his parent letter.  We loved watching the videogram his parents sent!  Students loved viewing the pictures of "Daredevil Jack" and listening to the song so much they wanted to watch it again!  Jack also enjoyed a special lunch with his dad on Thursday!

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
We are finishing up our "Bringing Characters to Life" unit.  Last week students really analyzed the characters in both "Because of Winn Dixie" and in their own fiction books to look for patterns of behavior.  Students created "theories" about these characters and have learned that these theories often need to be revised over time.  We focused specifically on how most fictional characters often struggle and grow over the course of a book.

Writing Workshop
After creating a story mountain to make a plan for a second personal narrative story, students are now using the elaboration strategies we have been teaching as they begin their draft.  We are teaching students how to use paragraphs to organize their thoughts and how to use quotation marks to punctuate the dialogue in their stories.

Math
Students continue to practice writing and solving multiplication and division equations.  Last week we focused specifically on 7s and 8s.  While students are not yet expected to memorize these facts, we worked on strategies for solving facts that they do not know by heart.  We are now working on building fluency with 0s - 10s multiplication and division facts.

Social Studies
We had an exciting week on our Northeast region tour!  On Monday, students visited Boston, MA and learned about some of the battles of the American Revolution.  We even pretended to take a walk on the Freedom trail.

On Tuesday, we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania.  We took a virtual tour of the Hershey Chocolate Factory and learned about mass production.

Our Hershey Kiss assembly line made 14 kisses in 4 minutes, compared to the 200,000 made at the factory in the same amount of time!

Devon takes his "inspector" job seriously on the Hershey Kiss assembly line!

Brock and Maddie roll dough balls for the Hershey Kiss cookies.

The girls put their cookies on the tray.

Calin, Sameeksha, and Nanthana take the cookies down to the oven.

Adding Hershey Kisses to the warm cookies is a team effort!

Jack writes a travel journal about his visit to Hershey, PA.

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
We are digging deeper in our "Bringing Characters to Life" unit this week. Students are continuing to "walk in the character's shoes" to deepen their understanding of the story and to help make predictions. Students are using their understanding of the characters and the traits that they display in the story to predict not only what will happen next but also how it will happen. Students will also be reflecting on the ways important events that happen in stories can evoke strong emotions. During reading time, students are now expected to write down their thinking about the books they are reading. This writing will help them as we begin to look for patterns in characters' behavior and grow theories about characters.


Writing Workshop
We are focusing on a variety of elaboration strategies this week.  These are ways that students can really develop their stories. Adding sensory details, including the internal story (what they are thinking or feeling), describing the action, and writing detailed descriptions will help students' stories come alive! Students have been revisiting old stories and using these elaboration strategies by inserting details. (See photos below.)

Math Workshop
As we continue in unit 2, students were introduced to "unknown number multiplication tables" where they must put into practice the multiplication and division strategies we have introduced so far in the year. They will also learn strategies to multiply and divide by 8. At the end of the week, students will practice writing their own word problems and then determine the appropriate equation to solve the problem. We have also begun "Math Talk." After all students have attempted to solve a "problem of the day," a student is chosen to show the class how they solved the problem.  The "audience" is able to ask that student questions about how he or she solved the problem, while other students are encouraged to demonstrate different ways that they solved the same problem. Emphasis is placed on cooperative math discussion and being able to verbally explain how a math problem was solved.

Social Studies
We began our tour of the Northeast Region last week, and we are having a great time! We have made stops in West Quoddy Head, Maine, Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Students pretend to travel by train during our tour. (All hats are numbered so that students wear the same hat each day. Hats are washed after each use.)

All Aboard!!

Students follow along in their textbooks as our Northeast tour guide (on an audio CD) tells them information about each new stop.

As we travel, pictures of each tour stop are posted on the Smart Board to help students visualize where we are.

In Plymouth, MA, students acted as pilgrims as they tried to determine the best form of government to adopt once they got off of the Mayflower.

Each group of "pilgrims" had to explain their ideas and answer questions about their plan.

Since we were pretending to be Pilgrims, we had a "feast" (muffins) to mark the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth.

Afer each tour stop, students write about what they learn on their "travel journals" in their region tour binder.

Red Ribbon Week

Each year Hill students team together to say "no" to drugs and "yes" to a healthy lifestyle.  Each day of the week, students were asked to dress in a certain way to show their support.

MONDAY: "Sock it to Drugs" (Crazy Sock Day)

TUESDAY: "Dreaming of a Life Without Drugs (Pajama Day)

WEDNESDAY: "Team Up Against Drugs" (Wear favorite team or school shirt)

FRIDAY: Red Ribbon Day (Wear Red!)

All-Star of the Week

Brett was our All-Star this week. The kids loved seeing his photos and listening to him read his favorite book, but their favorite part of the week was when Brett brought his pet rabbit Rolo to school.  His mom also joined him as his lunch buddy in the cafeteria.