Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
We wrapped up our mystery unit.  Detective Clubs met to discuss the final chapters of their mystery book.  Students completed a Detective Case Report, which retold all important information from their mystery (see examples below).  Your child will bring home his/her Detective Case File this week.

As a way to practice making claims and supporting them with evidence from the text (as students were taught to do in the mystery unit), we continued honing this skill with a Chris Van Allsburg read aloud.  First, the book The Garden of Abdul Gasazi was read aloud to the class.  Then the students watched and listened to a version of the story online.  Finally, students used a PDF copy of the book on their ipad to answer the Burning Question, "Did Gasazi really turn Fritz into a Duck, or was he just playing a trick on Alan?"  See the work students did below to make claims and support them with evidence for both sides of the debate.

Writing Workshop:
Students are close to finishing their personal essay.  They learned how to write a conclusion, which ties their small moments together and ends with their opinion statement.  Next, students will revise and edit their draft.  Then they will write a final draft.  Look for their essay to come home after the holiday break.

Math:
We continued to work on Elapsed Time.  We will review this tricky concept after the holiday break.  Please continue to practice this skill at home with your child.  If you go to a movie that starts at 4:30 and is 1 hour and 45 minutes long, you could ask your child to tell you what time the movie will be over.  Students also practiced reading and creating graphs.  They learned to pay special attention to the key on pictographs.  They also learned how to use KeyNote on their iPads to create horizontal and vertical bar graphs.  Ask your child to show you the graphs he/she created :)

All-Star of the Week:
Levi was our awesome All-Star last week!  Students wrote many nice compliments to Levi on Friday.  Levi enjoyed a special lunch with his mom on Tuesday.  Levi read aloud The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  The class loved hearing this classic story.  Students also enjoyed the items Levi shared on Monday along with his pictures.

Holiday Secret Pals:
Last week your child was a "Secret Pal" to a classmate for a few days.  Students only needed to do nice things to show they care.  We brainstormed various "acts of kindness" in class, such as asking your pal to play at recess or sit with you at lunch, putting your pal's chair down in the morning or up at the end of the day.  Students had fun keeping their identity a secret.  It was great to see students filling each others' bucket and spreading the joy of the holiday season.  I hope their acts of kindness continue at home.  On Friday afternoon students gave one another a homemade holiday card to reveal their identity.  They also enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies.

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!