Halloween Week!

Boo!  As we begin the new week, we leave behind a week of many different learning activities with more to come in the weeks ahead. 

This week first: 
      We are having our Halloween Get-Together this Wednesday from 2:00-2:35.  The students are able to wear or bring a costume to school, but leave behind the swords, toy guns or other types of attachments that may be forgotten here at school that day.  We will have the annual 4-5B Swinging Donut Activity, music (any Halloween music cd's out there?), cider, and assorted "healthy" snacks as well.  Anyone want to make a set of cupcakes?  Some chips, even some cups and plates would be great. 
We should be having our Four Winds volunteer doing a session this coming Tuesday (I do not think the weather will affect this...).    So now back to the previous week.

     This last week we started a three week Literature Circle with 5S.  We started off with both classes meeting together in Karen Saunder's room.  Karen and I presented the overview of the lit circle, read a short picture book and demonstrated how a student would respond as if they were in a lit circle.  The big topic is "conflict", and we are learning about the different ways it shows up in a typical story.  Students read assigned pages each night from the book they are using in the group, complete a reading log to share with their group members, and we have discussions and conversations about the story, the conflicts, and questions or comments the students wrote down in their journals.  The Lit Circle will end with a reader's theater presentation by each book group.
     Our 4th grade math class continues on with the Data unit.  They completed a mid-unit assessment this week, and they are working on how to develop a survey, collect data, and represent data.  This will be going on this week as well, but we will also be working on more concepts in the unit.
     Ms. Deb continued her social studies sessions this week with activities on placing the continents in the right places, why maps from the past look different from the present, and the differences between Mercatur maps and the Peterson projections.  Ask your child if they remember...  We also had Kru Beau come in to teach us more about Thailand.  This week:  the Elephant song!  She will be joining us twice a week starting next week.
     This past week in Science we continued our biomes/ecosystems studies.  We focused on learning how to review a scientific article on the Arctic Tundra and pick out details needed to make a concept map.  When that was done, we watched an online video created by a student group which allowed us to see what that environment is really like!  This week coming up we will be working in small groups to create concept maps of a few more biomes.
    We are also working on overall classroom responsibilities.  Things like cleaning up after yourself, hanging clothing up, following the classroom skills (raising hand , being an attentive student, etc.), and just being a community in the classroom. More practice needed, but check in with your child and ask them what kind of student are they at school? 
     So, watch out for the weather, wear your galoshes, and hope the week goes well for us all.
                                                                          Mr. B and Ms. Deb



     

   

Classroom News

Ms. Ames and 4/5 B on the hillside during School Forest Day

    Greetings!  I decided to put a few weeks of information into this newsletter.   Here are a few things we are doing or have done these last two weeks in class.  Last Tuesday we went up to Landmark to see the Mongolian Performers.  Quite exciting and fun, and a good healthy walk as well.  We also had School Forest Day on Wednesday with lots of stories, music, and walking in the school forest.  A fine day with cool temperatures and sunshine! 
    This week we are starting Literature Circles with 4/5 B and 5S.  Ms. Saunders and I will be setting the students up with book choices and going over the theme of the Lit Circle which is going to be conflict.  We will be meeting for the next 3 weeks in small groups made up of students from both classes.   A different Lit Circle “guide” will lead each group which depends on which book the students actually read. 
    Our most recent Writing has involved the Trumpet Swan story.  The 4/5 B students had to change a part in the story so that the characters had to make other choices, but still end up at the original ending.  We are reviewing those this week.  We also continue to do five minute writes each week.  We have been using the computers when available to write some original stories as well.
    Our latest Math unit has been the Data Unit.  We have been learning to work with line plots and bar graphs, looking at describing the data and creating statements about the data.  The next part of the unit will have the students creating their own surveys and recording the results of  what they find out.
    Ms. Deb did a few lessons on Columbus and the effect of his travels on the Taino people.  She will be working with the students on mapping and map information for the next few sessions. 
    The work in Ecosystems for our Science class will continue for the next few weeks.  We will be learning about many different biomes and ecosystems.  We explored major biomes across the world using an interactive web site.  We have also listened to an ecosystem song with many key words in it created by a classroom in another state.  This week we start to learn more about the major biomes from readings and internet sites.

    Okay, that’s pretty much where we are at right now.  Until the next time!

                    Mr. B and Ms. Deb

Our own Nick and Maggie join Dan is singing a song during School Forest Day

Post-NECAPS

Yay, we made it through the NECAPs...well, the 4th graders have.  The 5th graders will have their final Writing NECAP tests on Tuesday:  one in the morning and one in the afternoon.   We will have a regular day for the 4th graders including their two specials.   We celebrated a Putney Pride assembly on Friday morning, and our class handed in 212 Paws cards!  We are almost at out next class milestone of 250 which gets the class a nice treat of some kind. Then after the assembly was a bus drill.  We actually had a math class that morning and started our new Data unit.  We are investigating the number of raisins in a 1.5 oz box of raisins.  We will get into interpreting data as well as presenting it in different ways.
The 5th graders were able to attend a Technicool presentation after math class, which left the 4th graders in the room with Ms. Deb and I.  We decided to work on some spelling cards for a while, but then did an online activity together called Wacky Tales.  It was a Mad Libs activity in which we learned about parts of speech and created a story by filling in the blanks with special words.  We got a kick out of doing it and lots of laughs as well.  In the afternoon Kru Beau (Thai Intern) presented a lesson on Thailand.  I had to leave in the afternoon so cannot give the details now.  Maybe ask your kids...see what they remember?
In a few weeks, on October 16, we will be heading up to Landmark College again.  This time we are going to see a free performance by Mongolian Dancers.  It should be quite exciting! It will be about the same time a s last time, so will probably get bag lunches before we head up.

Well, seeing as most of our week was testing, I guess I have not so much to say.  So, let's see how this next week shapes up...Oh yea, School Forest Day should be Monday afternoon...weather permitting?