The weeks seem to be flying by. I first apologize that I have not been blogging as much as I had hoped. I got a little discouraged when I was having issues with the important dates not updating correctly. That problem has been fixed and I will be more regular in my posts to keep you updated as to what is going on in class. The children have all finished their first round of book talks and current events. The exciting news is that they are already asking me about topics they have heard and want to present to the class. The same thing has happened with books. Children want to share a book they have read even if it's not their day for the book talk. That makes me excited. We have scheduled all the book talks and current events for the next round. If there are any problems with the dates please let me know. In Math we have finished our unit on basic multiplication and division and will now be starting into multiplying by double and triple digits. They will start out doing the array model, which is something you might not be familiar with, and partial products, but we will be getting into more traditional multiplication soon. I'm sure we will have another great week!

Book talks

Our book projects came out as varied as our class. I loved the personality that came through in every presentation. I think everyone learned a little more about each other through this project. 

Math

In math we have been using rotations. With this method, students are assigned to groups and move from one station of activities to the next at their own pace. They are usually assigned a station to start at then move at their own pace. This also give me the opportunity to work with smaller groups of children on skills that are specific to them. When a skill needs to be taught to the entire class, we do a whole class lesson. Another thing you might have seen come home is Math 4 Today. In this activity we are reviewing skills taught and also they include challenges that the students haven't been taught yet. For this activity they are allowed to work with a partner to see if they can figure it out. If not they will either get it when we correct as a class or when the skills comes up in the standards and we teach it to mastery at that point.

What a great day!!

We sure have a great class! It was a day spent learning names and starting to learn routines. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow.

A Great Couple Weeks!

Wow there has been a lot going on in our class, since our last post. In Math we spent time preparing for the MCAS. Our class was happy to have the last of the MCAS completed last week. With MCAS done we could turn our focus to our Voices of the Past projects. I can't thank the parents enough for their guidance at home as we worked through these. I love to hear the stories as the children interview their Voice, and then to see the final presentations. I was VERY proud of all the students. They did great. The variety in the projects also was nice. Each student put their personal touch to the final project. I'm also happy to report we ended up having Skype success with everyone who tried. This year we had 3 Skype projects so the Voices who couldn't be there in person, where "there" to hear the presentations. In social studies we finished up the Southwest and will be moving on to the West, our final region of the country to study. The students have done a nice job working together on learning and presenting the information about each region in class. In writing the Students are enjoying some fiction writing. They seem to enjoy the freedom that they have with fiction writing. We will be working to bring one of these pieces to final copy soon.

Book Talk...

Current Event Bean Pot

The weeks just keep flying by.  The students are going above and beyond in their current event presentations.  They keep getting more creative in how they present.
Their book talks are leading to many books being swapped around the classroom.  I love it!  I've also gotten some great suggestions on books that I have thoroughly enjoyed.
This week we have been trying to prepare our selves for MCAS Long Composition next Tuesday.  They have all done well in their writing this year and have to feel confident that they are going to do well.  I think not knowing the prompt is causing the most anxiety for them.  I've told them to get a good nights sleep, eat a good breakfast, wear comfortable clothes, read the prompt many times that day and they will be fine.
As we continue our math unit on fractions, we also continue to practice our multiplication and division. Both basic facts and word problems.  Although some students have mastered the basic facts not all have, we are trying to have as close to master for all as possible. Keep them studying at home.

Our Week

This week has been great!  It started off with the announcement that the book we read in the fall,  The One and Only Ivan won the Newbery Award.  We loved the book and were very excited it won such a high honor.

     The students have attacked their presentations of book talks and currents events.  Each group is adding their own personal twist to the presentations making them interesting to all.  They are excited to tape their presentations to share with their parents through our blog. 

     We have also finished up our unit on Multi-digit Multiplication.  We will continue to practice each of the methods we learned making sure everyone continues to be comfortable with different ways to solve the problems. We will now be moving on to multi-digit division.

Current Event Asteroid Apophis

Current Event Super Bowl

Current Event

Our Terrariums

In science, we continue to watch our terrariums as they give us an example of the water cycle in action. Most of them are growing sprouts. Last week we finished our read aloud book Skinny Bones. The students really seemed to enjoy this book as we discussed character traits and examples from the text that supported these traits. The students have been doing a great job at both their current events and book talks that they have given. I’ve noticed some students interested in reading books others have presented. Sometimes we get out best ideas for books from friends. We were all very excited to hear the announcement of the 2013 Newbery Award. The book The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate was a book we read in the fall and we all really loved.

Growing Crystals

We had a great time investigating the states of matter as we watched our crystals snowflakes form.