Weekly Update

Poetry Cafe:
It was fun to see so many parents and students attend our Poetry Cafe.  The students did an outstanding job reading their poems, and we loved having some parents and siblings participate as well.  Double click on the slideshow below if you would like to see full-size photos.  (Double click on the slideshow to view larger versions of the photos and download individual pictures.  If you can't see the slideshow, click HERE to view the album)


Math:
We have just about wrapped up our final math unit.  Students have learned many different concepts about fractions.  Students are able to place fractions less than one and greater than one on a number line.  They are also able to compare fractions, deciding if fractions are greater than, less than, or equal to one another.  We have also learned about equivalent fractions.  Your child should be able to write an equivalence chain, such as 1/2=2/4=3/6=4/8=5/10.  Your child will bring home a math review on Monday.  It will need to be completed and turned in by Wednesday.  We will take the Unit 7 Assessment on Thursday morning.

Science:
We just have a couple more investigations before the end of our Measurement Unit.  Students have reviewed how to use a balance scale, measuring various objects.  Students have also reviewed capacity.  Last week they discovered a standard unit of measurement--a 100 ml beaker was the best tool to use to find out how much liquid a plastic cup would hold.  Students will not take a science test for this unit.  Many of the concepts learned in this unit were a review from math.  Students will, however, take a few short vocabulary quizzes in class.

All-Star of the Week:
Zavier was our most recent Room 13 All-Star!  Students enjoyed listening to Zavier share his items from his sharing sack and his photos of his family.  They also enjoyed hearing his parent letter and laughed out loud at his funny, favorite book, Splat the Cat.  Zavier enjoyed a special lunch with his mom and brothers as well.

Weekly Update

Greenfield Village Field Trip:

Students loved traveling back in time during our field trip to the historic Greenfield Village!  You can check out tons of great photos from our special day in the slideshow below.  (Double click on the slideshow to view larger versions of the photos and download individual pictures.  If you can't see the slideshow, click HERE to view the album)

Poetry Workshop:

Students learned to write 3 different types of poetry this week.  Read the descriptions below to learn more about Haiku, Odes, and Acrostic poems.

HAIKU

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry characterized by the number of syllables in each line.  Haiku poems have only 3 lines, or phrases.  The first line should have 5 syllables, the second line 7 syllables, and the 3rd line should have 5 syllables.

ODE

An ode is a lyric poem, usually addressing a particular person or thing.  It originated in ancient Greece.

ACROSTIC POEM

An acrostic poem is a poem where certain letters in each line spell out a word or phrase.

Sharing our Poetry

Students are given many opportunities to share their poetry.   Sometimes they share their poems with their poetry partner, and other times students share their poetry with the entire class in our Author's Chair.

Math:

We are continuing our study of fractions in our last math unit of the school year.  This past week, students learned how to locate fractions less than and greater than one on a number line.  They also compared unit fractions using fraction bars and number lines.

Social Studies:

We continued our travels in the Southwest Region during the past two weeks with stops at Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, and the capitol building in Austin, Texas.  

All-Star of the Week:

Luke was our awesome All-Star of the Week!  He loved sharing special items from his sharing sack, especially a trophy that he won with his soccer team at a recent tournament.  He also shared great photos of himself that marked special moments in his life.  He read an all-time favorite book to the class, If you give a Mouse a Cookie.  He even celebrated his birthday this week and enjoyed the special day with a lunch buddy visit from his dad.  On Friday, his dad created an amazing PowerPoint with highlights of Luke as a baby, Luke's interests and hobbies, and as well as special times they've shared together. 

Weekly Update

Poetry Workshop:

We are continuing to read and write poetry in both reading and writing workshops.  Students began the week by studying the mood of different poems and then trying to bring to life their own moods and emotions to the poems they wrote in their writer's notebooks.  Students also learned about personification.  Sometimes poets will give human qualities to objects that make them seem like they are alive.  After also learning how poets often use similes to compare two things (ex: My hands were as cold as ice) and alliteration (ex: full of fattening french fries), they began looking more closely at their poems to be sure they sounded like poems.  Many students' poems were sounding more like stories, so we helped students rewrite their poems to include short, more rhythmic phrases and line breaks.

A student took a poem he had written that didn't sound like a poem (version 1) and revised the poem to make it sound more poetic by using shorter phrases and line breaks (version 2).

Students looked for examples of personification in poems from books in our classroom.

A student's poem with alliteration

Another student's poem with alliteration

Students have assigned poetry partners with whom they share their poetry at the end of workshop on most days.

Math:

Students took the unit 6 test on Wednesday.  We are correcting those tests and will send them home next week.  In our final unit of the school year, students will explore fractions.  Be sure to read the parent note that came home with an overview of the unit.

Social Studies:

Students are really enjoying our current tour of the Southwest Region!  After making tour stops in Monument Valley (Home of the Navajo Indian Tribe), Phoenix Arizona (the hottest large city in America), and and the Grand Canyon, we arrived at the Hoover Dam.  During this tour stop, students worked in teams to solve two problems that engineers faced when building the Hoover Dam.

Problem #1: How could they harden 66 million tons of cement in less than 5 years?  (If left to cool on its own, that much cement would take 100 years to set!)

Problem #2: What should be done with the Colorado River during the construction of the Hoover Dam? (The Colorado River is a fast-moving river that runs right through the site where they planned to build the dam.)

Students worked in teams and acted as construction engineers when presenting their solutions to the 2 problems to their classmates.  The photos below show the teams presenting their ideas.

All-Star of the Week:

Emma S. was so excited to be our Room 13 All-Star this week!  She loved showing the class a special ribbon she won in a horse jumping competition as well as many photos of her riding horses.  Her favorite horse was Hercules, but, sadly, he passed away.  The class also loved listening to her read aloud her favorite picture book, Firebird!  On Wednesday, her parents and her older sisters created an awesome parent letter/collage with great photos, captions, and personalized messages for Emma.  She ended the week with a special visit from her mom who was her lunch buddy!