Here is a brief update of our past week...we have accomplished so much!
In Language Arts we are working on poetry. We have discussed figurative language, specifically similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, etc...we have found examples in poetry and discussed the meaning. This past week we focused on haiku and diamonte poems...we read them and we wrote them...and what I have to say is....WOW. Your children write beautiful poetry. We also read and analyzed Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening...I loved hearing what the kids thought Frost meant by his words. Then I attempted to share The Road Not Taken...yeah, that might have been pushing it a bit! This week the students will be introduced to color poems and they will be writing their own. We will also read and analyze Langston Hughes' poem Mother to Son, which may be one of my very favorite poems ever...I'll let you know about that discussion!
In Math we have been working on elapsed time...and those kids that already had that skill attempted some word problems using different time zones...they were tough! One of the strategies that I used to teach elapsed time was using a number line. And boy...those kids that were having a hard time...it was like a light bulb went off!! This is a skill that you can continue to reinforce at home by having the kids record start times, end times, and find the time that has passed during the day. The hardest problems are when the kids know the ending time and how much time passed, but have to find the start time! This week we will be focusing on measurement...capacity and weight...and we will continue that the short week we return in January.
In Word Study we have changed the routine a bit! For the next few months we will be working on prefixes, suffixes, and roots (greek and latin root words)...and for these units there will be packets for homework instead of the meaningful sentences. The kids will be responsible for the spelling of the fifteen words in the packet...they will be responsible for knowing the meaning of the prefix itself, and also the meaning of at least one word for each prefix...so five words total. If this does not make sense, I'm happy to try again....so please email me. I have used these packets for the past couple years and they are a great tool to help the kids learn the meaning of the word parts...which is going to help them so much as they encounter words they haven't seen before...
In Social Studies we have begun our ENTREPRENEURS project! We have four companies that have formed in our classroom....The Creators, Kra-Z-Kids, Puppet Masters, and C.E.J.J. Here they are below...I just can't remember which company is which! ;-)
They have been given a $10 loan and have made many different economic decisions during the questioning and imagining phases...they have found they have limited resources...sometimes money, sometimes supplies, and often they have a scarcity of compromising ;-)!!
Now they are in the creating phase...not as many compromises have to be made at this phase...they are experiencing specialization and interdepence first hand as they split up the jobs and work towards our goal of Market Day on Tuesday. Some students are working on the actual product, others are writing commercials, some are making fliers...and all are working towards making a big profit! Pictures will be forthcoming!
This coming week, please help your children come to school each day ready to learn...there are so many wonderful distractions this time of year...but we will work right up until the 21st, so I aim to keep them focused...your help is greatly appreciated!
Hug your kids for me this weekend...hugging is good.
