Weekly Update-March 1st

Dear Families,

This week we celebrated the 100th day of school!  We met with our buddies on this very special day and worked on 100 piece puzzles.  It is hard to believe that in only a few short months your children will be entering the middle school.  We are so proud of how much they have grown and matured.

In math, we are winding down a unit on multiplying and dividing fractions.  We will begin exploring measurement on Monday. 

In social studies, we are learning all about our closest neighbors and greatest trading partners-Canada and Mexico.  In addition, the children completed a webquest on the geography of Canada in the computer lab. 

We have begun a new read aloud, The Great Gilly Hopkins.  We are further developing our inferencing skills by discussing what the author is covertly revealing about Gilly through her actions and dialouge. 

Lastly, we are strengthening our essay writing skills by reading paired texts and identifying the shared topic.  We are supporting our thesis statement by providing texutal evidence from both texts. 

As always, we are busy little beavers in room 27.
-Alites


Meeting with First Grade Buddies on the 100th Day of School!

Weekly Update February 15th

Dear Families,
It has been another busy week in our classroom.  We would like to highlight an activity in our Science Lab.  The children participated in a lab focusing on traits passed down to offspring.  They assembled imaginary creatures based on the Lab Sheet below.  We noticed that although all the creatures resembled each other, no two were exactly alike. 

In addition, we celebrated the end of our writing unit with a Poetry Slam-Open Mike. The children were inspired by Cythina Rylant and utilized many of her crafting techniques to enhance their poetry. She has been an incredible mentor and taught us so much about writing.  The children also created a watercolor painting to complement their poems.  You can view them in the background. 

Have a wonderful break. 
-Alites




Example of a Science Lab data collection sheet for traits. 

Weekly Update-February 7th

Dear Families,
This week we would like to highlight an amazing experience in our science lab.  We had a visit from a staff member at the DNA Lab from Cold Spring Harbor.  She brought special equipment which allowed the children to get a close up view of mutated flies and worms.  Continue reading to find out what your child thought about the experience...

Becca: I liked looking at the pennies up close.  I was able to see the rust.

Stephanie: It was cool seeing the worms and fruit flies close up.

Madeline: I "liked" watching the worms eat the bacteria in the Petri dish.

Trevor: I saw a fly under the microscope that had three heads and that was cool.

Austin: I saw an albino fruit fly.  It was different from all the rest and that was really cool.

Caitlin: I couldn't believe how tiny the worms were.  It was weird when they moved under the microscope.

Jared: I was surprised by how small the fruit flies were.

Kyra: I saw a pupa from the fruit flies and it didn't have any arms or legs!

Emilie: I was amazed by how tiny the worms were and how you could only see them under the microscope.  I looked at two types of worms.  One was curved like a C and one was curved like an S.  The C worm was mutated.

Adam: I liked looking at the mutated fruit flies because they were so different than the normal ones.  I saw an all gold fruit fly and normally fruit flies are black with red eyes.

Brian: My favorite part was looking at the worms.  It was really cool to see them moving. 

Logan: I enjoyed learning about all the different mutations in humans.  We talked about insulin and keratin.  Keratin is what makes your hair and nails grow. 

Steven: I enjoyed looking at the mutated worms under the microscope because it was cool to see them moving.

Chris: I enjoyed looking at the penny under the microscope.  I thought it was so cool that I could see Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

Daniel: I liked seeing the worms move.  The worms we were looking at were tiny instead of big like regular worms. 

PJ: I saw the worms moving under the microscope.  The mutated fruit flies were curled into a ball and didn't have wings.

Alites: Overall, the experience taught us how similar our genetic makeup is to other living things.  Did you know that a human and a fruit fly share 60 percent of the same genetic makeup?

A sample lab sheet.

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

Weekly Update-January 25th

This week was bittersweet as we said goodbye to our wonderful teacher assistant, Ms. Meyer.

-Alites

Good bye

By Trevor and Daniel

Our beloved teacher aide, Ms Meyer, left our class to work as a teacher in the Bronx. She was a great help to our class and she will be go wonderful as a 4^th grade teacher. We miss her! She was a great teacher.



Perspective

By Rebecca, Emilie, Michael

This week you may have noticed that your child’s reading log looks different. Don’t worry, the teachers have come up with a new way to help your child understand their book on a whole new level. It’s called reading goals. Each week we will have a new reading goal. The reading goal for this week is perspective. Your child is assigned to write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the characters from their own book. Next week we will have a different reading goal. We will keep you posted.

Math

By Adam, Yunseo, and Sanjyot.

This week in math we learned about comparing and ordering fractions. When you compare fractions you find a common denominator.  When you order fractions you put them in order from least to greatest. We played a card game where you have to get the greatest fraction and you can swap cards but only once. That is what we learned in math this week!

Made in…

By Jared, Austin and PJ

Have you ever wondered where all of your stuff comes from? We did a project where we had to find the country items in our house were imported from.  Did you know that our biggest trading partner is not China?  In fact, our biggest trading partners are Canada and Latin America.  We found out that flour PJ uses at home was imported from Australia. The kiwis Rachel has in her kitchen were imported from Italy.

Stock Market

By Caitlin, Kyra, and Steven

Our new topic in social studies is the Stock Market. Our teachers explained how the stock market and shares works. The teachers gave us our own stock to follow for a week. Some examples are, Gap, Apple, and AOL. We went on a website called Wally’s Stock Ticker and looked up our company. We found out how much a share is worth and how the trading price fluctuates during the day. 

Phil Bildner

By Brian, Sakina, and Chris

This Thursday, Phil Bildner came to visit 5^th grade. He is an author, and often writes about sports. He is really funny and showed us some errors that he has spotted through the years like a STOP sign that was spelled “SOTP”! He taught us that our first draft of a story can not be our last draft. He showed us his newest book that he is working on. It is called Soccer Fence. He also told us that he used to go to our school- Cantiague! It was an amazing time!

 

Weekly Update-January 18th

What an exciting week for the Alites...read all about it!

Chorus
By Kyra, Sanjyot, Becca and Jared

            In chorus we are singing three songs.  They are called Winter Wishes, Water Come on Me Eye and Chattanooga Choo-Choo.  In one of the songs we play instruments.  Our concert is next week.  We hope to see all of you there!

DNA Lab Visit

By Stephanie, Sakina and Adam

On Tuesday, we went to the science lab for a visit with the DNA lab from Cold Spring Harbor. They came to us and in March we are going to go to visit them on a field trip. The scientist that came was a woman and her name was Ms. Gotlieb. She brought microscopes for us to look at cells. She printed letter E’s out for us to look through the microscopes and we found out that it was not only solid black, it had white spots in it.  Another thing we had to do is find our cheek cells. We took a toothpick (that was not sharp) and we put it in our mouths and rubbed it on the inside of our cheeks and retrieved some cheek cells. After we collected the cells on a slide, Ms. Gotlieb put a drop of blue food coloring on it so it would be easier for us to see. Next, we placed the slide under the microscope and looked for our cells. Some kids even saw the nucleus of their cheek cell. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait till we go to the DNA lab!

Economics

By Rachel, Michael and Yunseo

         This week we got new economic words. We learned about the 3 different types of economies. They are the command economy, free market economy and a traditional economic system. The traditional economic system is when a kid grows up they have the same job/trade as their parent. The command economy is when the government basically controls everything. Last but not least, the free market economy gives the consumers the freedom to buy what they want and to make their own choices. This is also known as capitalism. We have a free market economy in the United States. Also, the owners of businesses in a free market economy have much more freedom than they would in a command economy. We also learned about supply and demand and we are ready for the test tomorrow!

FLES

By Austin, Emilie and Daniel

In FLES we are wrapping up the language, Italian. Our last assignment for Italian is to pick a topic from an Italian category and write a report about it with at least 10 facts.  Austin’s topic is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Emilie’s is reporting on pizza, and Daniel will teach us about pasta. While we work on these reports at home, we will be beginning French in school. Bye or as they say in Italian, Ciao!

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

By: Logan, Madeline and Trevor

Our read aloud is called, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. This book is written by C.S. Lewis. We meet a lot of mythical creatures throughout the book. Like a witch, a faun, and a dwarf. The book starts off to be realistic and then it jumps right into fantasy. This story takes place in a world called Narnia. This is how this book all started... A girl named Lucy went into a wardrobe and she found out that it never ended. Then, all of a sudden she feels something cold on her feet and it is snow. That is how she finds out that it is magical. We are excited to read more about this exhilarating book!

Math

By: Chris, PJ and Steven

Right now in math we are learning LCM and the LCD It stands for least common multiple and least common denominator. First we had a few warm ups and then we started activities. It was hard at first but then we got the hang of it .Step 1, we listed the multiples of the 2 denominators, and then we find the least common denominator. So when you have the numbers you rewrite the problem and then you divide the denominator. So what you do to the top you do to the bottom.

TOOTSIE ROLLS

By Caitlin and Brian

This week we learned all about the history of Tootsie Rolls as part of our unit on Economics. We watched a short video about how to make Tootsie Rolls. We also found out cool facts about Tootsie Rolls. Did you know that Tootsie Rolls were named after the daughter of the man that invented Tootsie Rolls? We also made up our own company and created advertisements for it. Caitlin’s was the Tweezies Co. There was also a cake pops and bars company. Brian’s was the SuperChocolate Fireball.  It was a great experience!

Weekly Update-January 11, 2013

Dear Families,

Happy New Year!  You will see that we are hard at work.  Read all about it and please post a comment.

-Alites

Cynthia Rylant

By Logan, Kyra and Brian

This week we learned about an author named, Cynthia Rylant. We read her biography and learned that she loves animals, nature and family and is calm. She wrote the Henry and Mudge series, the Van Gogh Café and When I was Young In The Mountains.  We love her writing and can’t wait to read more of her books.  We are studying her craft and using her as a mentor for our own writing.  The biggest lesson we’ve learned from her is to write about the things you know.  She’s taught us to use our life experiences for inspiration. 

We Are All Mathematicians In The Alites Class

By Emilie, Madeline, and Adam 

This week we learned about the rules of divisibility. Basically, each number has a rule that tells you whether it will be divisible by another number. For example: if you wanted to see if 486 is divisible by 2 all you have to know is its rule. If a number ends in  0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 then it is divisible by 2. So, 486 is divisible by 2.

Also, we learned about prime and composite numbers. A prime number is a number that had only two factors which are and 1 and itself. A composite number has other factors in addition to one and itself. Overall, the Alites love learning about new things about math!

Jump Rope

By Steven, PJ, and Jared

In gym we are jump roping and practicing for our jump roping assessment. So far we are doing crosses and special moves like an elevator. We are also playing 4 Square. So this is how 4 Square goes, the person in the box tells every one to do special things like hopping on foot while jump roping or if you stop you will get out. On the day of the Jump-A-Thon you will have to continuously jump without stopping.  All five grades compete against each other. If you jump for over 3 minutes, you will get a prize.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

By Sakina and Becca

This week we started reading a new book- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. At first we talked about the vocabulary that is used in the book. The author is British so some of the vocabulary is unfamiliar.  We also talked about this book’s genre-which is fantasy. It takes place during World War II. We haven’t met many characters yet. The book seems really interesting so far.

Cells and Classification

By Caitlin, Rachel, and Yunseo

This week, we have been learning about cells and classification (as you can see in the title). We have been studying the organelles (workers) of the cells. We have this rhyme which is: the workers of the cell are the cell’s organelles! We also learned about the 6 kingdoms of life which are: animals, plants, fungi, protests, true bacteria and ancient bacteria. The levels of classification are kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. At the end, we had a test on this material which we were really prepared for. We did an awesome job!

Pen Pals

By Stephanie, Chris, and Sanjyot

During our last Fun Friday we wrote to pen pals in Farmingdale. Some kids got 2 pen pals, others got one. Some of their names are Matthew, George and Jaclyn. In our first letter we wrote all about our hobbies, our families and our lives. We asked our pen pals to write us about their hobbies, favorite sports, and other things. We are wondering when we will get letters back from them! We hope it’s soon!

Economics

By Trevor and Michael

This week in social studies we learned all about economics. We learned some vocabulary words having to do with economics such as capital resources, natural resources, and goods. We are studying hard for our economics test this Friday! We learned the important difference between needs and wants. Wants are the things that we desire but do not need to live. Some of our favorite things like a phone, a T.V, and a computer are categorized as wants. Needs are things we require to live. Food, shelter and clothing are all needs. As you can see, we are learning a lot about economics and we yearn to know more!