Happy Beautiful Friday!

This is my kind of weather! I was really tired of the rain...although I love the green that it has created! We had a wonderful week, despite the rain...here is how it all went down...

On Monday we had a great time at Fountain Rock Nature Center! I am working on a photo story of the day, but until then...read your child's letter to a second grader that they wrote this week for homework. They did the best job retelling the trip. They got to become part of a food web...many food chains together, they got to watch a toad refuse to eat a worm, they got to pet a harmless snake, and they were involved in using/observing/discussing so many different vocabulary words: populations, omnivore, herbivore, carnivore, predator, prey, decomposer, producer, consumer...all of which will be part of our next science unit, Populations. The rain kept us from a park picnic, but it couldn't damper our spirits...we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. Make sure to come back to the blog this weekend to see the photo story!

In math this week we worked on collecting data and summarizing that data finding the mean, median, mode, and range. The kids used their paper airplane data from school and from home to work through all of the different statistics...funny thing...the data always seems to show that the students' planes flew further than their siblings' or parents' planes!! We finished up the week with each student compiling and summarizing their own data based on the groups' airplane flights. These papers will be returned next week...they did a nice job.


In language arts this week each child participated in multiple Junior Great Books Shared Inquiry discussions. I wish you all could have been flies on the wall...these kids are AMAZING! You should see them support their thinking by marking places in the stories and referring back to them. You should hear them agree and disagree with each other and then back up their thinking...I was floored and thoroughly enjoyed our "chairs in a circle" discussions. Each child had a book with multiple stickies hanging out of them, a clip board with a focus question sheet, a pencil, and their wiggly selves...all to be balanced in a lap while attempting to have a serious shared inquiry discussion...sounds like a set up for chaos, but it was wonderful...they're growing up too fast! :-) Next week we enter our unit on plays...one of my other favorites...I can't wait to see these kids in a dramatic role...who am I kidding...most days they're pretty dramatic without a play!


A ton of graded papers are coming home today...please take time to look over them with your child. One of the papers has a blue sticky note on it...that is to remind you and your child that your signature is required and that piece needs to be returned. I wanted you to see their grade, but it is a portfolio piece and I need it back. Thank you!

Last, but not least, today we celebrated another marble jar filled! We had "Game Day"...this is the first time we have not voted on the celebration. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been instructing the kids on how to write a persuasive essay. Grace Lee's persuasive essay was about having a Game Day celebration and it was extremely well written, so I named today, "Game Day"...soooo, after our writing lesson this morning, the kids got to play games in the computer lab after they worked on "Type to Learn", they got a free game time where they could play indoor recess games, and during Math they played math games. It was a fun day and a great end to a great week!

As always...if you have a question, comment, or concern...feel free to email me. I can't believe we're in the fourth quarter...the year is flying by...I wish it would all slow down a little...I love these kids. Have a good weekend.