News From the Week

     This week in math we have been reviewing the multiplication computation of 3 and 4 digits by 1 digit and 2 digits by 2 digits. There was a test on those skills on Friday.  We also been learning about symmetry. We used purple mirrors to find lines of symmetry, created shapes with a set number of lines of symmetry and then learned about rotational symmetry. Students created two identical quilt squares, after learning about the history of quilts. Then one of their squares was rotated 90 degrees to the right. The result is a gorgeous bulletin board that you can see when you come in for your parent conference.  We are now working on learning about metric measurement. This week we spent time learning about estimating and measuring. Then we held a Mini Metric Olympics.
     In writing students decided on the chapters for their animal report book. We  learned about a main idea or focus sentence and then students have taken their notes and written a main idea and details for each of their animal report paragraphs. They should be finished with the writing of the report today. They have been keeping track of words to add to a glossary at the end of their book. On Friday we will be gathering photos to add captions to. They have looked at rubrics for the content and the editing of their reports. We will start typing the report next week.  We also wrote back to our pen pals from Calais this week.
     With our read aloud, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George students are given vocabulary words from the chapter and are learning to look them up in the dictionary and to match the meaning with the sentence. For instance browse in the book means what the deer are eating. Then students share the word with the class and put it and the definition on our word wall.
     We have been writing many opinion pieces. This week we read an article in Time for Kids about how children in the U.S. have too much stuff. Then they wrote their opinion about it.
     In social studies we have been learning about the Abenaki. During literacy we have been reading about Abenaki life We saw a video that talked about Abenaki of today.  We have been learning and playing various games that taught lessons. For the last two weeks we have been reading Abenaki myths. One of the students asked yesterday, "Is this literacy or social studies?" The answer was, "Yes, it's both."  They read about what the Abenaki do in each season and then made a Venn diagram comparing what they  do in each season to the Abenaki. Next, they used the Venn diagram like a detail map and wrote an essay of the comparison. This is practice of a typical essay question that might be on a social studies test.
     One of the literacy lessons that we have been working on for the past few weeks is point of view.  I read picture book and we determine who is telling the story and why is that important to the story. We will continue with this next week with some fairy tales that have a changed point of view and how different the tale is.
     In Tech Ed students have chosen a book that they know well and are creating book trailers. They have planned the sequence of frames, created a folder on the network and downloaded at least one image.