A Big Bite

Well, another snow day, that is life in New England in the winter. I hope the meteorologists are correct and that we get to see the sun this afternoon. It was an exciting short week in room 23. We started by taking a trip to China, Hong Kong to be specific. Mrs. Fuentes asked a colleague from China, Ms. Chan, if she could bring some sand to the U.S. to add to the sand collection and she did! Here is a picture of Repulse Bay, which is the beach where the sand is from. We also were able to feel some sand from Shenzhen, China as well. It sure looks nice, especially today! Then we took a trip to Norway to see the Fjords-they were very cool to see. We have started Snow Treasure, by Marie McSwigan and the story takes place in Norway. Fjords play a very important role in this historical fiction novel. We will be working on many skills in this novel including; character connections, figurative language, summary, drawing conclusions, author's craft and how to respond in writing to reading, just to name a few. Some of the students have expressed and interest in doing a non fiction study group on dinosaurs and I am working on getting that set up for next week. In writer's workshop, we continue to write rough drafts of an essay on "A day off from school." This was the MCAS prompt from last year's long composition. In math, we have been working on low stress long division and measuring angles. The chapter 6 math test will have to get pushed back again in order to make time to cover all of the material. In Social Studies, we have finished learning about regions and resources and will begin studying New England next week. We have begun talking about the water cycle in science and are even finding time to talk about blizzards, can you imagine that? Our focus in Open Circle will be on looking at our goals for the school year that we established in September, and reevaluating those goals. We learned about Martin Luther King and the MLK holiday last Friday when Mrs. Mecklenburg showed the entire 4th grade a power point presentation about the civil rights leader. There is a surprise in store for PE, and we will be posting a video in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Have a great weekend! Keep reading!!

Love,

Mrs. W