Classroom Update

We have been so busy finishing up units in many subjects, testing, and having some fun end of the year activities as well.  Here is a glimpse of what we've been up to:

In Reader's Workshop, students spent a couple of weeks doing nonfiction reading clubs.  They chose a topic they were interested in and spent time reading a variety of books about that topic.  Some of the club topics were: plants, mammals, space, famous people, America, reptiles, etc.  Students read their nonfiction materials through different lenses each day and for a different purpose.  We worked on finding the central message, revising and confirming our thinking about a topic, asking meaningful questions and reading to find the answer, and synthesizing reading by discussing and writing about their topic.  This past week, we began working on some reader's theaters of some of our favorite read aloud stories.  We'll be performing them in class next week.

Students have been working hard on their state reports during Writer's Workshop.  After finishing up our research portion of the state reports, we took a couple weeks to explore writing fiction stories!  This was lots of fun.  This week, we began publishing our state reports in the form of a book!  Students are working hard on their writing and illustrations in their book.  They are very anxious to share these books with you in addition to some other writing projects at our Author Celebration Lunch of Tuesday, June 4th!

In Science, we spent time learning about plants.  We mostly focused on the five parts of a plant and their functions.  We also had our first Environmental Education Festival at WestWood this past Monday!  Students participated in lessons about plants, insects, birds and clouds!  The kids had a great day!

The last couple of weeks in math have been spent learning about multiplication, fractions and probability.  We took our Unit 13 test today.  We will be spending the last couple weeks doing some additional lessons from the math curriculum, however, I will not be sending home homework and we will not be testing on the next unit. 

Just a reminder that May Reading Calendars are due on JUNE 3rd!  If your child returns their signed May reading calendar and has read at least 620 minutes, they will get to join in for a pizza lunch on Wednesday, June 5th!  The May reading calendar can be found on my website if your child has misplaced theirs.