We time-traveled to 1963 to look at the island of Surtsey. We read a scientific article about this island, and talked about the kinds of vocabulary you see in scientific articles. We also looked at the main idea of each section, and thought about why authors break up this information into paragraphs to make it easier for you to read.
We also started our folk tale unit. We read many versions of Little Red Riding Hood, came up with a definition of folk tales, and thought about why people tell them. If you have a favorite version of a folk tale at home, bring it in and we will try to find time to read it!
Finally, we read Robert Bly's poem "Driving to town late to mail a letter". There is a lot to talk about with this poem, and we had a great no-hands discussion. We also looked at the vocabulary Robert Bly uses, and sorted it into three tiers.
Writer's Workshop
The first half of the week we finished our remaining how-to books. We will do some simple publishing and then send them home!
We also looked at the book Picture This, by Molly Bang. We tried our hand at making our own illustrations of a scene from Little Red Riding Hood, using simple geometric forms to stand in for the characters and setting. Next week, we will use these illustrations as a jumping off point for some work on descriptive writing.
Math
We reviewed bar models and two-step problems. Students have a good grasp of these concepts!
We worked on a math assessment for Mr. MacLellan to see how our addition and subtraction skills are coming along, and what we still need to work on.
More work on multiplication is coming up next week!
Science
We tried to make floating islands. Guess what? We couldn't! There aren't any floating islands, because islands are land surrounded by water, and the materials that make up land are too dense to float. That means that under an island is more land, all the way to the bottom of the ocean/lake/river/other body of water.
Then, we received a memo from Dr. Sigurdur Thorarinsson about the new island of Surtsey. New in 1963, that is. We needed to test various coastlines to determine what would happen to this island as waves wash against its ashy shore.
News and Other Information
Some of our morning meeting questions this week:
- Who is your hero?
- Would you rather go deep underwater or deep into space?
- Would you rather live somewhere cold or somewhere hot?
Baby Ingrid missed her daddy, but he gave her some light reading to do while he was at work all week.
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