Hi everyone! I am hoping everyone is doing well through this unprecedented time! I have been trying to get outside each day to take in some nice nature walks or runs, when the sun is shining is does make everything seem better. Yesterday, the rain had me down for a bit so last night tackled a painting project I had been putting off, now to organize closets! Each Friday as you know we are sending home some suggested activities students could be working on to help the time go by and to keep them engaged and connected to their learning. I have loved seeing their video responses to Front Desk on the flipgrids I have posted in Google Classroom. I do respond back to each post so students can go in to each and see my response usually within 24 hours. Also, I have really enjoyed reading journal entries students are posting in their online journal. For those students that are using their written journal - that's great! Just know if you would like to have me respond to anything, just shoot me a picture of their journal so I can read it, or send me an email and I will most certainly respond. I am also going to post a weekly flipgrid check-in so students can all tell me what they have been up to! I have loved seeing the pictures shared of the figurative language projects many students have been working on! Please let me know if any questions come up - I am here to help!!! I miss everyone! Keep in touch! xo Miss Reilly
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Happy Friday!
Although a little early - HAPPY ST PATRICK's Day everyone! To me, St. Patrick's Day is a symbol of springtime arriving and by the weather we have had lately, fingers crossed that it has indeed! We started division with fractions this week, our focus being whole number divided by unit fractions and unit fractions divided by whole numbers. We spent a good deal of time working to model these types of problems and to come up with word problems to go along with our models. Next week we will look at unit fractions divided by unit fractions. Great work so far! Keep it up! In Reading, our focus this week has been on figurative language. While learning about similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole and proverbs, we have been trying to identify any we come across in our read alouds as well as our independent reading. Next week is IDIOM week, one of my favorite week's of the year! Students are working on an idiom project and a figurative language poster. The idiom project will be done at school and at home with students coming in next Friday, March 20th, either dressed as their chosen idiom or with props to show the literal meaning of their idiom. This is always tons of fun and I cannot wait to see their creativity! The figurative language poster will be also be an in and out of school project where students will find and illustrate examples of the different types of figurative language we have learned about. We are now reading Front Desk, by Kelly Yang. It is a wonderful story about Chinese immigrants who move to America and how a young girl overcomes many obstacles to help her family and other immigrants as they look to succeed in America. We are also reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and making connections to what we learned about the Nazi Occupation in our reading of The War That Saved My Life. Speaking of The War That Saved My Life, student game board projects were amazing! So proud of their ability to work with their partners to come up with rules, questions and to design a game board their classmates could enjoy! Our March Madness Picture book month continues as well! This week we read traditions of the Cherokee Indians, about medieval castles and about being confident in our uniqueness! Such great books with many great messages! In Science, we have been working on identifying the rock types as we review Weathering, Erosion and Deposition. We are finishing up our look at the Earth's systems (Atmosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere and Hydrosphere). In Social Studies, students are working in group to present on one aspect of Colonial Williamsburg. Their ability to work with others to assign responsibilities and work together towards a common goal has been wonderful to see! They have grown so much in this area this year! I am looking forward to really digging in to the American Revolution - causes and effects over the coming weeks! Keep up the reading at home! Be Well! Maura Happy Friday all! Well, it was nice to have March come in quietly with lots of sunshine and great weather! Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead Saturday night/Sunday morning, our days start staying brighter next week!! In Math, we have been very busy working with multiplication of fractions. Students have the computation down pretty solid, the challenge for them are the models when answering word problems. The model we draw for 1/2 of 6 (1/2 x 6) is different from the model that we draw for 6 groups of 1/2 (6 x 1/2) - see the example below: We will be continuing to work on word problems with fractions to build the conceptual understanding of the differences shown in this example and others! They are doing a great job converting mixed numbers to improper and improper to mixed which has really helped as they multiply mixed numbers like 4 1/2 x 2 3/4! Keep up the great work! Next week we will move into dividing whole numbers by unit fractions and unit fractions by whole numbers!
In Reading this week we kicked off March Madness. During this month we are reading a picture book a day (sometimes two!) from diverse authors and cultures. Be sure to ask your child about the books pictured in our photo gallery! We learned about Nelson Mandela, the children marching in Alabama, kite flying contests in Pakistan, a recycled orchestra in Paraguay as well as a book about the good that is present in all communities. Students have booklets where they are recording the titles, authors, and story elements for each book. It's great to see their amazement as they learn about traditions and activities in other cultures, as well as learn more about the history of change in our country. Students are also working on a final project for their literature discussion groups for The War That Saved My Life. They are working with their partner or small groups to create a game board for this book. They are creating questions and answers about the many events and characters to be used as part of their game. They are also creating the game board itself along with the object of the game and rules. These will be worked on in school and some work will be done at home. All game boards need to be done by Friday, March 13th, at which time students will swap off their games and play one from another group. Lots of great teamwork and creativity going on! In writing, we are continuing our work on our opinion writing! Students have been doing a great job gathering evidence both for and against their argument. We are organizing our thoughts and beginning our drafts. Next week we will focus on our transitions as well as how we can use quotes from experts to support our arguments. Looking forward to more great work from everyone! Lots of lively discussions about zoos, recess, testing and school uniforms! In Science, we are looking at the Earth's 4 systems: Atmosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Geosphere. Students did a nice job with their diagrams of the water cycle as we dug deeper into our hydrosphere. Lots of connections made to our discussions last week about water on Earth and how 97.5% of our water is salt water! We took a deeper look at our Geosphere by building models of the 3 types of rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic. Be sure to ask your child how igneous rocks are formed, or perhaps ask them to explain the difference between a sedimentary rock and a metamorphic rock. Great discussions and connections continue to be made as we went back to our work on how the Earth's landscape can change through fast and slow processes. How does erosion help create sedimentary rocks? Good stuff!! We had a lot of fun at Literacy Night last night! Our classroom read The Giving Tree and other poems by Shel Silverstein (one of my favorites). Ms. Pagnani read a fun poem about band aids and we created little people to see if we could count the number of bandaids in the poem! Next week will continue digging in. We are going to go through the practice tutorial for the MCAS, just to remind students and hopefully put them at ease that the tools remain the same as last year! We have lots to accomplish, but I have been proud of their focus this past week. They are a chatty crew overall, but when focused - wow!! Amazing results! Thank you for all of the support from home! Enjoy the weekend!! Maura
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March 2020
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