Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We are so excited to share this newest blog with you all.  The children are reporting on many of the activities in our classroom.  Please leave us a comment.  They would love to hear from you.
-Alites

Amazing How To Projects

By Kathryn and Jonah

 

In class, everybody presented a How To project.  Alyssa demonstrated how to make a clay sea dragon. After her presentation she let the class try to make a dragon too. We had to follow very specific directions. They turned out great and looked amazing. Avi made a torch theatre from a cereal box! He put on an entire show for the class about The Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe using a flash light and characters. It was incredible! The rest of the class did a great job too! They are displayed outside in the hall. It was lots of fun making our projects and presenting them!

                                                            Government

                                                By Alyssa, Joey, and Dylan E

In social studies we were studying government. We learned about the three branches of government. They are the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative Branches. Each branch has three levels: local, federal, and state. We made hangers to help us remember them. (See picture below)

 

 

We hung up the hangers on the ceiling. Some of them are hanging on the fans. The Judicial Branch deals with the courts. An example is the Supreme Court. The Legislative Branch makes laws. Congress is part of the Legislative Branch which is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Executive Branch enforces the laws. We learned about the branches of government and prepared for our government test.

 

 

Home Schooling V.S. Public Schooling

By Carly and Vivian 
 

A couple of weeks ago we read a book called Schooled. After that we started learning how to write opinion pieces. We based the opinion piece topics on Schooled.  The class was split into two groups: people who support public schools and people who support home schooling. Each group wrote an opinion essay on their topic.

After we wrote our essays we had a class debate. On the day of the debate the teachers picked from the sticks and chose one person who supported homeschooling and one person that supported public schools. Each pair of students stood up in front of the class and defended their side. There was a format to the debate that we followed. First both sides stated their opinion. Then one person presented their position. Next,  the other person responded and started a new argument. Mr. Luppy, our amazing school custodian, was our judge. The next day we got an email from Mr. Luppy telling us that everyone did great and the debate was a tie.

 

 

 

Incredible Inquiry Projects

By Jillian and Olivia

 

This month we are working on a project called “Things That Make You Go Hmmm”! First each one of us had to pick a question that we always wondered the answers to.  For example, Jillian’s question was What is in a snow globe? and Olivia’s question was How do cats communicate? Next we filled out a KWL chart (what we know, what we want to know, and what we learned). Then, we researched our question and filled out the 'L' on the KWL chart. Finally, we put all the information we gathered and made a PowerPoint, Prezi, or poster. We presented them in class.    

 

 

 

Math

By Matthew, Mikaela, and Judy

In class we have been working on long division. We learned the steps it takes to complete a long division problem. These steps are, division, multiplication, subtraction and repeat. We are also experimenting with two and three digit divisors. To start each math lesson we sometimes play division games on the smart board. We take turns practicing and if we don’t get it right, the teachers help us. We do a lot of work together with our teachers and everybody gets a chance to go up in front of the class and practice long division.

 

 

 

                                                  Pioneers

                                   By Marisa and Dylan H

In class we are learning about Pioneers in Social Studies. We are studying Manifest Destiny. We started the unit by looking at a painting called Manifest Destiny.  We analyzed the painting and realized that America was the angel going west who was bringing pioneers and technology west. Manifest Destiny is when the Pioneers had a desire to move and settle in the west because the west offered new opportunities.

We are also watching a movie on Pioneers called Little House on the Prairie. This movie showed how the Pioneers faced many troubles moving west. Some of the troubles such as: leaving family members behind, getting attacked by Indians and facing blizzards were shown in the movie.

 

 

Text Savvy

By Jake C, Peter, Avi

 Text Savvy is a method used to help us get a deeper understanding of what a text says. Each day of the week we cover a new strategy with the same text.  On the first day we preview and prepare the text. We scan the text and notice the text features and/or format of the text. On the second day we monitor for meaning where we examine and/or read the text and make sure we understand its meaning. On the third day we envision, where we try to make a picture or movie in our minds of the text.  On the fourth day we infer and interpret, where we make inferences and analyze the text. On the last day we synthesize, where we make something or we think about and discuss a real life situation that is similar to the text.   

 

 

 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

By Ethan and Brandon

In class we are reading a book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis. It is about four kids named Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. Their parents sent them to a professor’s house for safety during World War II because of the bombing in London. In the house, Lucy finds a wardrobe that leads her to a magical world called Narnia. She met a faun named Mr. Tumnus. When she gets back she tells the others but they don’t believe her. Later, they all get to know that the magical world is real because all the children cross over into Narnia. Every few chapters our class has a quiz about the book. This book is fascinating! We hope you will read this awesome book!  

 

 

Science

By Jake S and Alexis

In science our class has been studying oceanography and different creatures that live in the ocean. We did many different and experiments about the ocean. For example, we did an oil spill experiment. We learned that oil spills can hurt animals in many different ways. We also dissected squid and examined fish. During the dissection we learned that if the squid has yellow inside it then it is a girl. We sorted sea creatures to find their similarities and differences, we also played a food chain game in the hallway outside the auditorium.  We learned that different animals eat different plants to survive. 



 

 

 

 

    
 

 

 



How To Project

Dear Families,

As part of Text Savvy we analyze a different text each week.  We preview and prepare, monitor for meaning, envision, infer and interpret, and synthesize.  This process encourages the children to focus on a close reading of a text and make text to world connections.  Recently, our class looked at a text titled, How to Make an Origami Cup.  The kids enjoyed this text greatly.  

We challenged the class to synthesize the text by selecting their own How To Project and present it in class.   We had such a wonderful time sharing our projects.  Check out the photos below.
-Alites


Ethan showing off his rock crawler.



Avi entertained us with his Torch Theater and a reenactment of a scene from
 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.






Ryan mystified us with his magic trick.






Matthew was able to read minds with his mind bending trick.






Brandon created a creepy Monster Cork Board.



Jake S. created a spooky Goblin Cup.



Marisa created a pumpkin bird feeder that is now hanging outside.






Joey taught us about the lost art of writing a thank you letter.



Kathryn made drawing a super hero look so easy.



Carly's super cute frog prince deserves a kiss.



Olivia took on Mrs. Aloe on her homemade hockey table.

Dylan H. tried to fool the class with a slight of hand trick.

Jonah pets his astronaut dog. So cute!

Julia's Moon Witch was beyond adorable!

Peter amazed us with his World Record Paper Airplane.

Vivian highlighted her creativity by making a Crayon Egg.

Jillian showcasing her clay witch.

Judy left us in awe after presenting her 3D drawing of a can of soda.

Mikaela took us to a far out galaxy. 

Alyssa showed the class how to make a Sea Dragon.

Jake C. showing off his clay Martian.