Monday, December 2, 2013

December Happenings

12/3:     Early Release @ 11:30
              Parent Teacher Conferences
              Family Night Book Fair 4:30-6:60
12/13:   Field Trip to Buffalo History Museum
12/19:   Art Show & Holiday Showcase @ 6:00
12/23-1/1/13: Winter Recess...No School

Welcome December!!!!

We can't believe it's already December...we've had a blast so far and have learned a lot since September. Thank you to all the parents who have had the ability to chaperone on field trips, check our blog, and read the various text messages sent out. We have come so far as a grade and with your continued support we will go even farther. 

 Humanities: We are beginning a unit titled Creative, Inventive, and Notable People. In this unit we will reading biographies about musicians, artists, and inventors of the early twentieth century. We will delve into research about an inventor and their invention while creating a foldable to display what we've learned, we will utilize the iPad in order to find main ideas of specific songs and create an iMovie, and we will also be comparing and contrasting different artworks from the same artist. To bring this unit to life we will be going on a field trip to The Buffalo History Museum to look at inventions from out area and how they came to be. 

 Writing: We are shifting gears from writing narratives to writing informational and explanatory texts. I am so excited about this unit because it allows students to teach others about what they're experts at. We will be focusing on paragraph formation including an introduction and conclusion. We will also learn how to write a paragraph with the topic sentence followed by supporting details and closing with a closing sentence. Some students are moving on from having a writing notebook to being able to use the Notability app on their iPad as their electronic notebook, they are very excited about that as it will help strengthen their typing skills.

 Math: We are vigorously working through Khan Academy. The students have been showing such growth since we began this journey. Please have them continue to work on it at home as well as Study Island to help continue their growth as a mathematician. 

 Science: We are beginning a Life Cycle unit this month. We are going to be working with meal worms, frogs, and various organisms. This should be a hands on unit and we are excited to immerse the students in this kind of environment.