Bi-weekly update, November 20th

Reader's Workshop
We are doing an author study of Eve Bunting. She often writes about serious subjects, and her books invite good discussions. So far, we read Pirate Boy (a not-so-serious one), Going Home, and How Many Days to America?

We did a lot of reading, looked at the ending -ed, worked on our spelling words, and read a poem about sunrise and sunset.

Writer's Workshop
We are finishing up our bee research writing unit by organizing our bee notes into categories, then picking one bee-related topic and writing a paragraph about it.

Math
We are moving slowly through the subtraction chapter so that students can have time to master three-digit subtraction with regrouping.

Science
We made floating lighthouses, and tried to make floating islands. Guess what! We couldn't make an island float!

We will be studying islands, geology, erosion, and rivers in the next two months!

Social Studies
People have come to America for many reasons. We discussed the places we know our family came from, before they came here, and talked about some of the reasons why they came.

We also started our first Children Discovering Justice unit, about Freedom. Students discussed what is freedom, and if we have freedom in the United States. We talked about how we balance freedoms with laws and rules to keep us safe. Freedom is one reason that some people have come to our country.

News and Other Information
We are about half way through our current homework project, studying a family tradition or celebration. This project is due on December 4th.

The school site council has a survey for families to take:
- in English
- in Spanish
If you would like it translated into another language, please talk to Ms. Kaplan.

Lightship

We read a wonderful book by Brian Floca, called Lightship. This is an informational text, but it reads very differently than most informational texts do. It sounds much more like a story.

To write this book, Brian Floca did lots, and lots, and lots of research. He read books about lighthouses and lightships, he visited actual ones, he talked to people who worked on them, he looked at photographs and diagrams of lightships, he investigated marine charts to see where they were, and he took many, many notes on everything he learned. Then, he turned all of his research into a book!

We also read a Gail Gibbons book about lighthouses, as well as another text that shows lighthouses all around America.

Then, we tried to make our own! We had two main goals: make it float, and make it act as a lighthouse. Some of our designs did both, some only floated but fell over, and some sank.

Writing paragraphs

In writer's workshop recently, we have been working on writing paragraphs. A paragraph is a collection of sentences which all relate to one topic. This is one of the last steps to our research writing unit. Next, we will be pairing our paragraph with some other informational text features to make it easy for our readers to learn about the topics we are writing about.

We started our research process with lots of note-taking. Mr. MacLellan read a page from a book, and then students had a very short time to write a note about what they read. We talked about how notes don't have to be your best handwriting. Mr. MacLellan showed some of his own notes and nobody could read them!

Next, students organized their notes into categories. We color-coded the notes, cut them out, and glued them with similar other notes.

Finally, we started writing our paragraphs. Students picked one topic relating to our research on bees. They wrote a title on the top of their page, and started their paragraph with an interesting question to get the reader interested in reading more. We will be finishing these paragraphs later this week.

For our current homework project, students need to take their notes about the family holiday, celebration, or tradition, and write a paragraph from their notes. They should use the same structure we used in class:

Bi-weekly update, November 6th

Reader's Workshop
We worked on comprehension skills these weeks, focusing on two big skills: asking questions and visualizing. We read a number of magazines, asking and answering questions as we went. To practice visualizing, Mr. MacLellan read a book out loud, having students draw the picture in their head for every few pages. After we were done, we looked at the pictures the illustrator chose, and compared what was the same and what was different.

We talked about defining words,  and groups of students wrote a definition for a number of words relating to bees.

We also continued to study spelling words!

Writer's Workshop
We are fully into a research writing unit, reading books about bees, taking notes, and drawing to help support our research. Next week, we will be writing paragraphs with the information we have learned.

Math
We are subtracting! We are working on three-digit subtraction with regrouping in all places. This has been difficult for many students, so we are taking our time and moving slowly through this unit so we have lots of time to practice.

At home, please practice math facts, especially subtraction! Students should know the answer to any one-digit subtraction facts. If you see that your student doesn't, then practice, practice, practice!

Science
Can you make a heavy thing float? We tried to make clay and rocks float, by choosing materials or shapes that were buoyant enough to support a heavy object.

Since we are learning about bees in writer's workshop, we are thinking about pollination in science, too. We went into the school garden and picked marigold flowers for a dissection. Back in the classroom, we drew them, then picked them apart to see what they look like up close on the inside. We found seeds, lots and lots of seeds! We also looked at garlic chive flowers, and drew those in our science notebook as well.

Social Studies
We learned about the world, thinking about countries, continents, and oceans. Understanding the difference between a city, a state, a country, and a continent is difficult!

News and Other Information
The week of November 16th - 20th is conference week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week are half days, with dismissal at 12:15.