It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

It was nice to see everyone during conferences in November and spend some time looking at the progress your kids are making.  I hope everyone had a good time celebrating Thanksgiving with their families.  It is hard to believe we are approaching Christmas break!  

In our classroom, students worked hard during November to learn our songs and parts for the Christmas County Spelling Bee.  The program was a success and I think the students enjoyed it.  We have some very talented students in our classroom and it is so much fun to see them growing and using the gifts and talents that God has given them.

With our Christmas party coming up, we will be drawing names this week for secret pals to exchange gifts with.  This year we will be exchanging one gift on the day of our party.  The price should be $5-$10.  Please have students bring their gifts to exchange on the day of our party, December 20th.

What have we been doing?

• Reading:  We finished reading the novel Mississippi Bridge and students completed a story mapping project.  We then went on to look at six different accounts of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Students analyzed the accounts and how they were similar and different depending on the author's perspective of the event.  During the next couple of weeks before break, we will be working on stories in our reading curriculum.
•   English/Writing:  We finished our study of Adjectives and Adverbs.  Now we are learning about Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases.  We read the book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups which tells us about the REAL reason we have rules such as "Eat your vegetables!"
  
  Students are currently working on writing reasons for their own top secret rules.
• Science:  We completed a research project on Big Cats and Their Habitats.  Each student chose a big cat to learn about and then created a Google Slide presentation to tell about their subject.  We are still working on Life Science and looking at unique features of living things and their habitats. 
• Health:  During November we had Music instead of Health so that we could focus on learning our songs for the Christmas Musical.  Now we will be going back to our unit on Digital Citizenship and will be learning safety with online contacts and friends.  We are using resources found at Common Sense Education

Have a great week!

First Quarter Flies By!

We have made it to the end of 1st Quarter!  The last day of the quarter is Friday, November 2.  Please check in with your child and log in to Jupiter Grades to make sure that they are up-to-date with all of their work.  All work for this quarter must be turned in by Friday.

Friday Folders - every Friday a folder goes home with your child that contains homework and tests that have been graded.  Also, any notices, letters, or important information from the office goes home in those folders.  If you have not seen any of these papers, please check in - the abyss - I mean the backpack!

Next Friday, to celebrate the end of the quarter, we will be having a DOJO Reward in our classroom!  We will have a game day.  Students are welcome to bring a board game or group game from home.  No video games please.

October has been a busy month in our classroom.  Here are some of the things we have been doing:

• English/Writing - we are continuing to work on our autobiographies during Writer's Workshop.  We have been working through each of the steps in the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing).  Writer's Workshop has worked well for our class, it allows each student to work at their own pace through the writing process. 
• Reading - we are currently doing a novel unit on Mississippi Bridge by Mildred D. Taylor.  We are learning a lot about what it was like during the Great Depression and the struggle for equal and civil rights of African Americans in the south during that time.  This ties in well to discussions about racial tensions that we still face in our society today.
• Science - we are still working through our units in Life Science and are currently looking at how scientists work to classify living organisms.  Last week we used specific criteria to attempt to classify a Mystery Creature!  After comparing and contrasting it to other similar creatures, the Mystery Creature was revealed - a tarsier!  Ask your student about what organism it was most closely related to - tree frog, fruit bat, or lemur (or Yoda).  :)  
• Health - we are still learning about Digital Citizenship.  We spent several class periods talking about gender stereotypes in media.  Our first lesson on this subject caused quite a reaction.  We split the back of the classroom into three sections - boy, girl, or both.  Then I read off a list of statements, colors, occupations, and ideas. Students went to which section they felt the statement most represented.  We then came together to discuss our ideas and why we reacted the way that we did.  Our discussion had rules:  everyone who wanted to could share, no one was allowed to interrupt or cut someone else off, no loud outbursts were allowed, and no judgements of others.  This was a good practice for hearing others out without jumping to conclusions about what they are saying.  We then talked about where our opinions come from and looked at how media can have an influence on our thinking - sometimes in an obvious way and sometimes in a not so obvious way.

Have a great week!