November 23, 2015

Today Mrs. Christy joined our class to teach the class a new sharing protocol called Chalk Talk. This was an activity that allows for quiet reflection.  We practiced this protocol with the book Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. It is a story about a homeless young boy and his father that are living in an airport. After hearing the book, we went into the hallway to view several questions posted along the walls in the hall.  Students silently reflected on each question, writing their thoughts on these posters.   After, we shared the responses in a group.  Most students commented that they liked this new protocol because it allowed quiet thinking time for reflection.

In math this week we are finishing our unit on geometry.  Some of the topics we have covered include:

          Angle types

          Lines, segments, rays

          Measuring and drawing angles

          Locating missing angle measurements

          Lines of symmetry

Students were given the end of unit assessment today.

In technology class, we began a new assignment connected with our new read aloud, The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye.  This is a story of Aref Al-Amri, who must leave his hometown of Muscat, Oman to travel to Michigan with his family.  They will be living in Michigan for several years.  Aref does not want to leave his friends, school, or his grandfather.  Students have been asked to imagine that they have to leave their home in VT for 3 years.  They will be creating either a Google Slideshow or a WeVideo sharing the places that are special to them, that they would hope to visit before leaving.  We will be working on this project in technology for the next couple of weeks.

Today the 4th and 5th grade classes are starting a new fundraiser.  Students were given an envelope of raffle tickets to sell to raise money for our early June trip to the Boston Tea Party Museum and sleepover at the Boston Science Museum. Enclosed in the envelope is a letter that gives details of this fundraiser.  

Last week we joined our buddies for a math activity comparing 3 digit numbers through a game called, “Trash Can.”  Below are a few pictures of our time together.  This was our second visit with our buddy classroom.  The students have been excited to spend time with Mrs. Giammusso’s students.

Have a safe, healthy, and happy holiday!

Nature Journal - Leaves cont.

After our session outside, students sorted their leaves and tried to identify what type of tree each leaf came from.

Nature Journals - Leaves

This past Wednesday our class went outside to learn about the characteristics of broad leaves (deciduous).  First, we looked at leaf arrangements including opposite and alternate leaves.  Then we focused on the various characteristics of leaf margins including smooth, lobed, serrated or toothed and double serrated.  Karen demonstrated gesture drawing for the students.  They then collected a variety of leaves and completed entries in their nature journals.

Releasing Butterflies

Today our class was invited to join Mrs. Gannon's students as they released the first three of their Monarchs.  After tagging each one, we watched as these amazing creatures left on their long journey south!

September 30, 2015

In our Reading block we have been working on a variety of strategies that good readers use.  Throughout the year you may hear your child refer to the acronym “CAFÉ.”  CAFÉ stands for

          C  -  Comprehension (understanding what you read)

          A -  Accuracy (reading the words correctly)

          F -   Fluency (reading accurately with expression)

          E -   Expand Vocabulary (knowing, finding, and using interesting

 words)

We will be using the CAFE menu to learn reading strategies based on the Common Core standards that will help us become better readers.  To date, we have worked on Choosing Just Right Books, Making Connections, Predicting, Visualization, Voracious Reading, Check for Understanding and Summarizing.  Through a mini lesson and mentor text, we learn about and practice each new strategy. 

            In math class we have covered many skills during our focus on place value.  Some of these include:

• Reading/writing whole numbers to the trillions
• Reading/writing decimals to the thousandths
• Comparing whole numbers/decimals using <, >, and =
• Ordering decimals and determining the least/greatest decimal within a list
• Expanded notation
• Adding whole numbers/decimals using the U.S. standard algorithm

 

We continue to watch our monarch caterpillar, recording observations in a journal.  The class has been reading, An Extraordinary Life:  The Story of a Monarch Butterfly by Laurence Pringle.  This narrative captures the story of one monarch’s journey through migration across a continent.  The chapters we have read so far covers the caterpillar (Danaus) from her hatching on a single milkweed leaf in a Massachusetts hayfield and has continued through her metamorphosis into a butterfly. We have also heard about her journey south. 

On Tuesday we watched a short movie about Monarchs and their amazing migration journey.

          Thanks to all that participated in our Solmate sock fundraiser.  We are currently working to organize the sales and place the order with Solmate.  More to come on when we can expect to receive the orders.

Monarch Update

Unfortunately, we returned to class this morning to discover that one of our monarch caterpillars had died.  We now have only one larva left.  Our class learned from Mrs. Gannon that several of the caterpillars in her classroom had escaped from their tank over the weekend!  One had managed to form its chrysalis on the outside edge of her tank.  After observing their class caterpillars, we returned to our room and started working on our Google slide presentations.  We will continue on these projects over the next week or so.

These caterpillars have multiplied their weight more than twenty-five hundred times!

The front of its body curves to form a J shape just before forming the chrysalis.

This larva escaped from the tank before becoming a chrysalis!