"The Hundred Dresses"

We had our final studio lesson during Math this week and everyone did a fantastic job of showing their math learning.  We also had a visit from Jon Gailmor on Monday and then enjoyed his performance with the fifth graders on Wednesday.  Our field trip to the Flynn to see "The Hundred Dresses" performance was amazing.  What a terrific story this was to highlight bullying and the negativity it creates.
When we return from April break we will be headed back to the Flynn on May 7th for another performance called "Cuentos".  We also have a field trip to Shelburne Farms scheduled for May 10th to learn about farming.
There will be no homework over April vacation.  I hope everyone has a fun, relaxing April break!

Hands On Nature

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This week we enjoyed a Hands On Nature lesson about birds.  We learned many interesting things about birds and practiced recognizing different kinds of birds' songs.  We watched a puppet show, played bird call bingo and did several other bird activities.  A big thank you to our Hands On Nature parents-Amelia, Kim and Fiona for taking time out of their busy schedules to teach us about birds.
We finished our Balls and Ramps unit in Math this week and will begin a new unit on Monday.  We were able to make some terrific discoveries through the experiments we did during our Balls and Ramps unit.  On Wednesday each partnership was given a marble problem and had to design a ramp that could accomplish the task they were given.  Every partnership was successful in creating a ramp that worked for their problem.  We have continued with opinion writing during Writer's Workshop this week.  Everyone is writing opinion pieces about a variety of topics.  We have been working hard to include a focus statement, our ideas/reasons with supporting details and a conclusion.  We began reading a book whole group this week during Reader's Workshop and will continue with this through next week.  This book includes ideas about how to be a better writer.  We have been discussing those ideas and have also been working on our fluency when reading orally.  We have been discussing the things good readers do to keep their listeners' attention when they are reading aloud.
Next week will be busy again with our Field Trip to the Flynn to see "The Hundred Dresses" on Wednesday morning and a John Gailmore performance on Wednesday afternoon.  John Gailmore will also be visiting our classroom on Tuesday afternoon to sing some songs with us.  We will also be having our last Math Studio of the year on Tuesday morning.
It was wonderful to see all our Firefly students spring music concert.  What a terrific bunch of singers they all are!

The Hundred Dresses

We have been reading the book The Hundred Dresses this week to get ready for our Flynn field trip about this book.  We have been talking about character traits and bullying which is a theme in this book.  We have integrated this book into our opinion writing unit during Writers Workshop.  We will continue with this book next week.  We began Unit 14 in Fundations and have been learning about two ways to make the /ou/ sound.  We learned that "ow" can be used in the middle or at the end of a syllable.  "ou" is used in the middle of the syllable.  Examples of this are in the words "trout" and "plow".
Our Balls and Ramps unit is moving along and our class eagerly anticipates math time every day.  This week we did three experiments.  The first was about ramp height, the second about marbles of different mass, and the third was about ramp length. Through these experiments, we have been learning about averaging.  Ask your child what they learned about balls and ramps this week.
A quick reminder that Hands On Nature will be this Wednesday.  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the outdoors that day.  Also, the 1/2 Music Concert is this Tuesday at 6:30 pm.

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