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Our Week in Review 11.16 - 11.20

Story Bird

This week in Writing Workshop we are experimenting with some new technology!  To celebrate all of our hard work we are going to be publishing writing pieces to our blog.  The program we are using is called StoryBird and it is web-based.  Students are creating their very own picture books by selecting a piece of artwork (or multiple pieces of artwork) and then writing a story that correlates with the artwork.  Be sure to ask your child about the story they are working on.  We are going to start publishing these pieces to our KidBlog accounts at the end of the week.  Please check them out. 

Exciting Mystery Skype

We had a new and exciting Mystery Skype this morning. Usually our Mystery Skypes take place in the United States and we try to find what state the classroom is in.  However, today students were Mystery Skyping with a country.  To begin with students asked yes/no questions to find what continent the mystery classroom was on.  After we found what continent (Europe) the Mystery Skype classroom was on, we then asked yes/no questions to locate the country (Ireland).  We learned that Ireland has lots of rain.  We also found it very interesting that we Skyped with an all-boys school. 

Thank You!

A big thank you to Jayden's family who donated two books to our classroom from the Book Fair,  Mrs. LaBonte who also donated two books to our classroom from the Book Fair and Ariana's family who brought in our fruit for the Friday Taste Test -- we sure loved the mango!

Taste Test

We had another wonderful Friday Taste Test.  Our grain was Chex-Mix, the protein and dairy item was cottage cheese, the vegetable was jicama and the fruit was mango!  Below are photographs from our taste test!

Friday Morning Meeting Song

A big thank you to Mrs. B who videotaped our class during Friday Morning Meeting.  This is a wonderful video that highlights each member of our classroom.  Click on the link (here) and our video is all the way on the right. 

Poet of the Day -- Week of 11.9 - 11.13

Our Week in Review 11.9-11.13

Alliteration

As part of our poetry unit we have been writing alliterations.  Here are some of our alliterations!

Ms.Donnley dances at disco parties

Ice-cream is icky and icy

Sara sang so sang the river with Sally

Zachary loves to zip and zap

Luise licks lollipops

Liam likes to lock lovely lollipops.

Snowman wears snowy socks.

Subtraction Stategies

We are learning about different subtraction Stategies in math.  Below is a picture of our anchor chart with the strategies we have learned so far. 

Poet of the Day

During our Poetry unit of study students are given the option to sign up to be “Poet of the Day”.  The “Poet of the Day” shares a poem during Read Aloud to the class.  The poem the student chooses to read can be one that they have found in a book or wrote themselves.  Students can sign-up to be “Poet of the Day” by clicking here or on the link on the classroom blog. I am looking for families to help support their child/guardian in selecting a poem and practicing the poem at home.  Students can also sign up to be Poet of the Day at school. 

Thank You!

I continue to be amazed at the generosity displayed in our classroom on a daily basis. I would like to start by sending out a huge Thank You to Jayden and his mom for purchasing a new iPad cover for our classroom. This could be the coolest iPad cover ever (definitely the coolest any of us have seen in room 6)! Thank you! I would also like to thank Kaleb's family, Emily's family, Jayda's family and Elsie's family who donated food for our Friday Taste Test. Thank you to all.

Our Week in Review 11.2 - 11.6

Trick or Treat for Unicef

LOn Friday, our class counted the Trick-or-Treat for Unicef money collected by Porters Point School.  Each table had between 6 and 10 Unicef boxes.  It was up to each table to agree on a strategy to count the money.  Adults supported students, however, they did not provide suggestions or tips.  At first students were unsure where to begin, but once they started to work as a team (table) every table developed their own strategy. One table sorted the dollars and coins and counted together, another table had each student count their own money and then added the totals together.  A separate table made one dollar piles.  Students realized it was much easier to use a calculator to find the total.  Students also agreed that counting the dollar bills was a lot easier than the change.  The class came up with a total of $213.  When Ms. LaRose brought the money to the bank the total was $215.  We were only $2 off!  It was great to see students excited about applying life skills in the classroom.

Mr. Shpaner 11. 4

On Wednesday Mr. Shpaner came in for our second personal finance lesson. Below is a recap of the lesson written by Mr. Shpaner.  Thank you Mr. Shpaner and we are excited for another lesson this week!

Today’s personal finance unit built on recapping the “money in, money out” theme of the first unit to focus on two kinds of spending: buying and renting.  The students compared renting to buying and to borrowing, finding that it shared some similarities and differences with both.  (For example, both a bike borrowed from a friend on a playground and a rental car needed to be returned, but not a car that was bought.  However, an owner of that borrowed bike may ask for it back at any time, while with respect to a rental, both the renter and the owner must follow rules.)  The class offered great examples of other items that can be rented, from sporting equipment, to an RV, to a home.  Finally, the students went through a hypothetical decision-making process between buying and renting a kayak by comparing costs based on their kayaking plans and other factors, such as whether or not they had a roof rack to carry it.

Playing Salute!

Today in math we learned how to play a new game.  You can play at home with a regular deck of cards.  The instructions are below.

Sorting Food Items

On Thursday, during nutrition class students identified various food items and discussed what food group each item belonged in. We have learned that there are 5 food groups:  fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein and grains. Some food items were easier to sort than others.  Students had to put on their “thinking caps” when sorting the following food items: tacos, mac ‘n cheese, pizza and lollipops.  What food group(s) do you think these food items go in?  

Guest Teacher -- Mr. Shpaner

On Wednesday morning Naomi's father, Mr. Shpaner, came in to teach us about personal finances. We discussed how “money in and money out” works. Money in deals how we receive money. Students brainstormed different ways to receive money: find money, get as a gift, stealing and trading/exchange/sell money. We also discussed how money goes out: we can donate money, save money (for later), buy or spend money, invest money, waste money. Many students had never heard about investing money. We learned that investing is a special kind of spending and it's a way to earn more money. As a class we also talked about the difference between earning and stealing money. We were all in agreement that earning money is the honest way to live our life. Wednesday was the first of four lessons Mr. Shpaner will be coming in to teach. We can't wait for him to come back!

Mrs. McCarthy -- Guest Teacher

Yesterday Mrs. McCarthy (Trinity's mom) came in to do a nutrition lesson with our class.  Mrs. McCarthy helps adults and children make healthy decisions throughout their day in regards to exercise and eating choices.  Mrs. McCarthy discussed with our class how our bodies are like cars.  A car needs gas to run which is similar to our bodies which need energy and healthy nutrients to run.  After discussing how many of our healthy choices come from a farm, and the ground, we were able to taste test a variety of foods.  The foods we taste tested were: dried green beans, plantains, carrots, cucumbers and seaweed.  We also discussed how foods that have one ingredient are healthier than food that have 20 ingredients on the nutrition label (such as a cookie). Thank you Mrs. McCarthy for coming in.  Below are photographs from our activity with Mrs. McCarthy. 

The Three Little Pigs

This past week we continued to focus on fairy tales during Reading Workshop. On Tuesday we read The Three Little Pigs. On Wednesday we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! On Thursday we began discussing how a fairy tale may have different versions. We have been comparing different versions of the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs. We have also been talking about an author's point of view. The Three Little Pigs is written from the pig’s point of view while The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is written from the wolf’s point of view. We are going to continue to compare fairy tales and folktales over the next few weeks! This week we will be focusing on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. 

Our Week in Review 10.26 - 10.30