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