You're It

Here is this week's, "You're It!"  #goodforyou #keepitup

A Big Bite

Happy Thanksgiving!  The students in Room 23 are making great progress and they are working hard.  They have spent time creating, "Thankful Wreaths," and a holiday centerpiece.  Check out the pictures below and make sure that you read all about what Room 23 is thankful for on each wreath that comes home.  I am thankful for such a great class!The speeches were well done, only two more to go this year. Last week, we listened to storyteller, Len Cabral, tell us some fabulous stories and he encouraged us to keep writing our own stories.  We also participated in a Mystery Skype visit with a school in Maryland.  It was a great way to practice using all of the skills that we learned in the map unit.  We have finished Little Dog, Lost and will be starting a unit on nonfiction when we return to school next week.  We will be learning all about Canada!  We are continuing to learn all about the earth, earthquakes, volcanoes, erosion and fossils.  We also spent time in Antarctica on a Skype visit with Jean Pennycook, Penguin Scientist, ask your  child all about it!The students are very motivated by this unit.  In math, we have begun to learn all about long division and are using the, "low stress/partial quotient," method instead of the traditional method that parents learned in school.  Parents are welcome to join us during math time to learn how to divide this way.
On Friday, one of the students in Room 23 shared her love of Salvador Dali in Art class by reading a research paper that she had written.  the students loved it and in true spirit of community, they supported her efforts by listening and learning!! Thanks so much to Ms. Doherty for letting the students in room 23 share their passions in art!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
Mrs. Williams

You're It

Here is this week's, "You're It."  #goodforyou

A Big Bite

Not too many pictures this week...we were busy doing A LOT of learning.  We are reading Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer, writing fiction stories, practicing multi digit multiplication and learning about the earth and earthquakes.  Over the next seven school days we will finish Little Dog, Lost, complete several writing projects, finish multiplication and begin division and continue to learn about the earth, its layers and earthquakes.  Stay tuned!!!

A Big Bite

Black and White day was a huge success!  We completed some end of book assessments about Mr. Popper's penguins, played penguin Pictionary, completed an art project and watched March of the Penguins.  We made a great bar graph of all of our black and white snacks.  It was great fun!  Thanks so much to the O'Connor family for sharing the book, 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental.  We were able to make so many great connections to Mr. Popper's penguins and solve some fun math problems at the same time!

 Our Student Council candidates gave wonderful speeches and everyone would have been a great representative for Room 23.  Congratulations to our winner!

 We continue to give many book talks in reader's workshop and inspire each other to try new books.  Here are just two examples of some of the most recent book talks.

Last week we listened to Mrs. Castro-Rivera tell us all bout Dia do los Muertos in Mexico and this week we played Kahoot to review for the open notes quiz.  Everyone did a great job!  Several 4th grade students are working on developing a community service project for a school in Mexico...more information to follow!

In math, we have started multi digit multiplication.  The goal is for students to UNDERSTAND and MODEL a multiplication problem through manipulatives and drawings.  It's not enough to use the traditional algorithm to solve problems, students need to understand why and how the numbers are arrived it in a problem.  More of this over the next two weeks!  Parents are always welcome to join us for a math class to see how we are solving math equations.  If you would like to attend, just send me an email and we can set up a time for you to observe and participate in a lesson.

In writing, we are working on fiction stories and quick writes.  The authors in room 23 have great ideas and such creative stories, I love reading them!

As part of the social/emotional curriculum standards, we are continuing to meet daily, sometimes twice a day, to review classroom situations.  Our goal has been to "build each other up," and to focus on strategies to reduce stress and anxiety.  Breathing is A GREAT strategy for reducing stress and anxiety and LAUGHTER is a great way to reduce tension.  We will continue to work on these skills and concepts.

Have a great weekend.