A Big Bite

Our week back from the Thanksgiving holiday was fun and full!  We participated in many science experiments and activities and the science learning will continue next week.  Ask your child to tell you all about it!  We also will start learning about Canada next week and the students are very excited to learn all about our neighbors to the north.  

Have you been hearing a lot of discussion about dogs?  Our latest interactive read, Little Dog, Lost, by Marion Dane Bauer, is a huge hit.  It is a novel in verse, which is a new text structure for many of us, but one that we enjoy.  We will finish reading this week and then start an in depth unit of study on nonfiction reading.  

We will continue fiction writing next week with a project involving model magic.  In addition, students have been engaging in a variety of free write activities; comic strips, stories, non fiction research, researching recipes, and poetry to name a few.  On Friday, we were treated to a Skype visit with author, Josh Funk.  Mrs. Merten, Mrs. E and I were his guest readers for a book that will be published in March of 2019!!! It was super exciting to get to read a book that hasn't even been in libraries yet!  It was a very special treat.  Shout out to Mrs. Merten for setting up this great visit.  It is always wonderful for the students to get to meet real authors and ask them about their books and their writing process.  It is a very motivating experience for young writers.  Josh Funk will be at Unlikely Story in Plainville next Saturday.  Check out our Tweets in the Twitter Gadget on the right hand side of the blog. 

Long division is our latest focus area in math and it is challenging but EVERYONE is making steady progress.  Please continue to practice math facts and the division will come along.   Click the video below to see a tutorial on the partial quotients algorithm (method).  My only bugaboo with the video is that the presenter does not line up her numbers properly, but she does fix her mistake.  Check it out!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams