Hands On Nature

This photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

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!