April 25-29

Hard to believe that April is over and we only have a month and a half left of school! We are continuing to work hard, start new projects, and learn more about how to live in our community. Writer’s Workshop

Students continued to work on their historical fiction pieces, this week adding in sensory details and figurative language to make their writing come alive for their readers. We considered when to make new paragraphs, and focused on starting a new paragraph when time has passed or when the setting changes. They had a chance to share some of their writing with a peer for some feedback, too. They are still on fire about their writing! I can’t wait to see the finished products!

Reader’s Workshop

This week we began a new historical fiction read-aloud, Elijah of Buxton. Students laughed so much hearing the huge exaggerations in this book. Breaking up into book clubs, students discussed the first two chapters of the book, considering the setting, identifying characteristics of characters, working on vocabulary words, and discussing their impressions of characters.

P3 Energy

Using the ideas they came up with last week of ways we can help save energy, students formed four different committees (Presentations, Posters, FlipFacts, and Research/Interviews) and began working together to make a plan. The work this week was two-fold… learning to function productively as student-led groups, and making a difference in energy usage. Students struggled at first to make things work smoothly, but soon began to come up with strategies that worked for them and shared those ideas with other committees. It was really fun to watch them push through and feel good about their progress! You’ll notice many of our photos seem dark; the kids want to work with the lights off as much as possible to save energy. 🙂

Genius Hour

Students continued their independent studies, researching for their chosen topics. They are fully engaged and really enjoying their exploration. Some are gathering data from surveys they have created, some are beginning to create slideshows, some are making plans to build things to share. I can’t wait to see what all they come up with! Their topics are as varied as their personalities; I love it. 🙂

ISTEP

This week most students finished the Math portion of ISTEP. They have been incredibly flexible and amazing through all of this! Next week fourth graders will take Science and fifth graders will take Social Studies tests.

Snacks

It will be especially helpful during these crazy testing schedules to have healthy snacks that, if at all possible, are individually packaged. Cheese sticks, fruit, granola bars, yogurt tubes, and individual packages of crackers are all great options. Next week’s families are Johnson, Roussos, Schaffer, Scheiber, Sequoy. THANK YOU!

Super sweetness

The kids were so sweet to me this week; my birthday was Thursday and they spoiled me with cards and letters and rocks and origami flowers and even offers of money they found in their pockets. 🙂 They wrote on a poster what they would give me if they had an endless supply of money. It is clear they know me; many were around chocolate, coffee, travel, and books. You have such amazingly sweet children and they blessed me greatly this week! As your kiddos have games and performances and events these next couple months, I’d love to know schedules so I can try to catch them doing their thing!