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