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!