Weekly Update - February 1st

Dear Families,
Due to the benchmarks being administered this week, we were unable to secure lab time for our students to type our blog. So......you're getting this week's news from us!
-Alites

This week we picked our seed idea and are moving toward publishing our narrative poems. We've become experts on Cynthia Rylant and can't wait to utilize her craft in our very own poems!

In math, we have come to the end of our unit in fractions, and our students can expect a test next week. We will continue to explore fractions in our next math unit. One highlight in math this week was discovering the value of fractions using tangrams with Mr. P.

In Reading Workshop, we used The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to explore symbolism in literature. We discussed how various authors use charcters, objects, and events to represent something deeper in their writing. The kids will be looking for symbols in their independent reading next week as a reading goal.

In science, we are looking forward to a visit from the staff of the DNA Lab. In class, we have been learning about traits and the genetic information our DNA carries. We enjoyed talking about which traits we inherited from which parent. Ask them to expalin the difference between phenotype and genotype. Impressive!

In social studies, we been tracking our stocks and will graph our results today in the computer lab. We continued to discuss the idea of scarcity and the effects of supply and demand in a free market economy such as ours. Ask them about the Bagel Article!

In closing, we would like to welcome Ms. DeBlasio! She is our new classroom aide.

Enjoy the Superbowl and the weekend! Happy Groundhog's Day!

-Alites