by Sarah Segall | May 7, 2016 | In The Loop
Science / Language Arts
We had a full science week! We started the week reviewing concepts previously seen: 1. A system is a collection of interacting parts that work together to make a whole or produce an action. 2. A system can also be a collection of interacting ideas and/or procedures that together define a physical entity or process. Students did a great job turning in their homework with examples that illustrated this concepts. After sharing these, we moved on to the next part of our investigation. The guiding question for this part was: Is planet Earth a system? Based on their prior knowledge, students generated many different explanations to answer this question, compiled all the answers and observed patterns. It all lead to the identification of the four subsystems of planet Earth—the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. During this unit, we will be focusing particularly on the biosphere. It was so interesting to observe students describe ecosystems by looking at feeding relationships and energy transfers, described as food webs. After working on key vocabulary and making connections to concepts learned during our field trip, we discussed how food webs are made up of producers (organisms that make their own food), consumers (organisms that eat other organisms to obtain food), and decomposers (organisms that consume and recycle dead organisms and organic waste). Students had lots of fun constructing food webs according the characteristics of the different organisms. We all finished the investigation fascinated by the complexities and intricacies of our biosphere!
Even though our focus during Spanish this week was science, this did not compromise our Literacy routines including:
- New spelling list ( bl – br)
- Spelling sentences
- Relationship amongst words and how they refer to a same idea or topic
- Word work -Determining the meaning of the words by their structure and/or context (discuss different strategies)
- Book Club (Beisbol en abril) facilitated by Carsen, Azalea and Bailey
Last but not least, and in preparation for our much anticipated Mother’s Day Tea, we worked on our poetry unit (Poesia de verso libre).
We hope everybody had a great time during our special day dedicated to all our wonderful SWS mothers! Students worked so hard this week getting all the details ready, as well as the beautiful program. We are so fortunate we get to celebrate with you all on this significant day! Happy Mother’s Day!
Maestra Paola
History & Geography
We learned so much in History this week! We began by learning about the Mormon Trail. We compared the hardships on the trail to what we learned about the Oregon Trail as well as the pioneers themselves. We learned that while pioneers on the Oregon Trail were not kind to each other, pioneers on the Mormon Trail helped each other with everything. We also learned that while although both trails were very difficult there were good times as well. We then acted like historians and read letters and watched
a video biography to make inferences about what the California Gold Rush was like. We were also able to look at the perspective of a woman who was a large influence in the Gold Rush. Finally, we learned about the Trail of Tears and Manifest Destiny.The class was split into 2 groups and, using our techniques to make inferences, the students used their textbook, websites, and direct sources to make a mini lesson. Each group then presented to the other and answered any questions. It was great to see the students doing research, collaborating, and answering questions for others. They all did such an amazing job!
Math
This week we finally finished up Chapter 13! We learned how to find the missing leg length of various triangles. We discovered that if you add to legs of a triangle their length must be longer than the third leg. We were then able to use that 
information to give various possible leg lengths. We then discovered how to find the missing angles in parallelograms, rhombuses, and trapezoids. We played with different polygons by cutting off their angles and seeing which combinations made 180° and which make 360°. On Friday we reviewed the entire chapter by playing math baseball! I took the practice test and divided the questions by difficulty into 4 groups. The class was divided into 2 teams and while one team was up to bat the other worked on ALEKS. The student up to bat decides how hard of a question they want if it is correct they can move to its base it not that was 1 out. After 3 outs we switched. The students loved it and it was 
such a fun way to review the information. Next Monday will be our Chapter 13 tests! I reminded the students to look over past homework assignments and I will be available through e-mail all weekend.
I also wanted to send out a quick reminder that students should be working on ALEKS at home as well to help reinforce past and new material. As well as give them a head start on future topics.
English Spelling/ Vocabulary
This week we used our rotating routine with our spelling sort groups. Each group had a spelling test this week, although they were all on different days. The class as a whole did very well and I am super pleased! Everyone has received their new words for next week. Orange has a test on Tuesday, Green has a test on Thursday, and Blue has a test on Friday. This is the same routine that we will follow for the rest of the year. I will be switching up activities randomly to keep them on their toes. We have been working a lot on writing in history. Specifically, using evidence, paraphrasing, and inferring to make an argument. We will continue working on this next week as we begin a new history project!
Art
First of all, thank you everyone for all the Teacher Appreciation gifts and treats! All the goodies were delicious and the coffee wonderful. Thank you for the sweet notes and gifts from your students. It was a very special day!
The 4th and 5th graders learned about Native American Dream Catchers in art this week. They started their own dream catcher by wrapping a brass ring with either pipe cleaners or jute string, and then used yarn to begin weaving the “web” that catches the dreams. These are looking great so far, and we’ll finish them next week.
by Sarah Segall | May 7, 2016 | In The Loop
What a special week! It was so much fun to feel so appreciated in such thoughtful ways by all our families. Thank you so much! It was also fun to celebrate our moms!!
Language Arts
We continued with our ocean theme this week. We:
- categorized words based on people, animals, objects, and places (students were able to recognize that verbs didn’t fit into any of these categories).
- worked on oral combination and separation of syllables.
- talked about persuasive writing. At the kindergarten level this was all about billboards, the information they contain, and their purpose. We did a class billboard for having fun in the sun: ¡Diviértase bajo el sol!.
- worked on creating individual ‘billboards’ for a new whale at the zoo. This involved whole class research, drawing, and choosing our words to persuade visitors to come see the new whale.
Math
We added cylinder pigs to our mural. They are so cute! We also learned all about cones and added chicken cones to our farm mural. We continued our using our categorizing skills and sorted plane and solid figures. Students have done a great job identifying all these figures in our geometry unit.
We worked a lot with the number line this week. We have continued our subtraction practice, using various
Jumping backwards on the number line for subtraction.
methods and strategies to help find the way that works best for each student.
Science
This week we wrapped up our unit “Taking Care of the Earth”. We’ve had a lot of fun learning ways in which we can help to preserve our earth. Hopefully some of you have been incorporating some of these ideas in your home!
Lisa had fun introducing the kiddos to the “magic” of magnets on Thursday and Friday while I was out. This is always a big hit with the kinders! We will be working on a lapbook over the next several days which summarizes all we’ve learned about magnets!
I want to wish all of you fabulous moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day! How do I know you are fabulous? I teach your fabulous kids! Thank you for all you do in supporting your child’s education, growth, and development! It shows!
Art
First of all, thank you everyone for all the Teacher Appreciation gifts and treats! All the goodies were delicious and the coffee wonderful. Thank you for the sweet notes and gifts from your students. It was a very special day!
The kindergarteners made a 3-D butterfly this week in art, using colored strips of paper. We talked about the difference between 2-D art, like the caterpillars they made last week, and 3-D art which has DEPTH. The students did a great job making paper rings and gluing them together to create very pretty butterflies!
by Sarah Segall | May 7, 2016 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week in language arts we finished our book reports on Amelia Bedelia. The kiddos wrote two more drafts to help them revise their writing and were able to edit each other’s papers. We also read a story about predicting the weather. We learned different signs that can help us to see what the weather will be. The kiddos practiced their comprehension skills of summarizing what they’ve read and also making connections about what they’ve read to help them better understand the story.
Phonics:
The kiddos had fun having more diphthong smoothies this week. They learned the sound for the diphthong ou as in the word gourmet and the diphthong uo as in the word cuota. ask your kiddo to show you how we make diphthong smoothies!
We were discussing the word peinar to comb, so the girls messed up their hair.
Math
In math this week we finished our unit on telling time. The kiddos learned to tell time to the hour for example, 10:00 would be las 10 en punto and 10:30 would be las 10 y media. We also discussed what time of the day we eat breakfast or begin school and what time of the day the might eat dinner or go to bed.
We also practiced finding different days of the week and reviewing the seasons of the year and days in a month on different calendars. For example, one of the things I asked them was what the date of the 2nd Tuesday of the month was? I also asked them to figure out the day of the week that the last day of the previous month fell on and then they had to write out the entire date. It was a little tricky.
Thank you to all for making this such a great teacher appreciation week! It’s so great to be part of the lives of such wonderful children!
History & Geography
This week we read about important symbols that represent the United States (ie: the flag, the Liberty Bell, and the bald eagle.) On Thursday the class read a book about important symbols in United States and then went on a scavenger hunt seeing if they could find any of these symbols around the neighborhood. We also began our domain review this week. We did riddles of the core content to help understand what we’ve learned in this unit , we also reviewed our time line, and other image cards that we have looked at along the way. On Friday we made a class book called The Birth of a Nation. We included key events and people that we have learned about during this unit. Next week we will take our domain assessment.
Science
We had fun reading a trade book about volcanoes on Monday, lots of questions and comments about Volcanoes. On Tuesday we took a break from science and focused on our minds we had a wonderful Mother’s Day tea. Thank you to all the moms taking for taking the time out and letting us let you know how special you are. We hope you enjoyed the manicures and massages as well as spending this special time with your child. On Thursday the class had fun doing a volcano model with the volcanoes they made in class. On Friday we reviewed what we’ve learned so far in this unit and finished up with some activities. Next week we will start our lesson on minerals.
English Spelling
We continued to work on our sorts this week. The class did activities involving the vowel patterns , alphabetizing, drawing pictures, and writing sentences. They did wonderful on their spelling test on Friday. For grammar we did some editing worksheets on capitalization and punctuation, focusing on ordering events in a paragraph. Our Journal writing this week was all about Mom. Students wrote stories about Mom, they wrote what makes a good mom , and wrote words that describe their mom or a poem about mom.
Art
First of all, thank you everyone for all the Teacher Appreciation gifts and treats! All the goodies were delicious and the coffee wonderful. Thank you for the sweet notes and gifts from your students. It was a very special day!
In first grade art we read the book “Cuckoo” by Lois Ehlert, which is based on a Mexican folk story. The students used patterns to cut out shapes from poster board, and then used brass fasteners to attach the pieces to create a moveable cuckoo bird. They did such a nice job following directions that they finished in 45 minutes. The students can use this same technique to create their own moveable animal art using card stock, a hole puncher, and fasteners
by Sarah Segall | May 7, 2016 | In The Loop
Learning from a new perspective.
Language Arts
We had many different discussions this week about telling stories. We had specific lessons on organizing a narrative writing piece, on creating a setting, and switching the setting to help our readers better understand the flow of our writing. We also learned about the semi-colon and it’s use in writing.
The colon is used to introduce a list of items. The bookstore specializes in three subjects: art, architecture, and graphic design.
Students began the writing process for a new fantasy writing piece. They are very excited about staring another big writing project!
Students are sounding a little rusty in their Spanish reading. Please be sure to have them read nightly.
How many lines of symmetry do you see?
Math
We had a great time creating individual posters as we learned about flips, slides, turns, rotations, congruent and non congruent shapes.
We also built on prior knowledge of symmetry. Students were challenged to create figures containing multiple lines of symmetry. This was fun!!
Students were showing mastery of this topic so I administered their unit test on Thursday and they aced it!
We had a blast with our introduction to area and perimeter on Friday. Ask your child about our area game.
History & Geography
This week we learned about Samuel de Champlain and what an important Explorer he was to North America and the French. On Thursday the class worked on their questions about his biography and they finish their expedition logs. We also watched a few more videos on each explorer. We also began to get ready for our Explorer interviews that we will be doing next week. Everyone is so excited to be an explorer and dress up. Each student will take a turn being being an interviewer as well. On Friday we spent some time researching the individual explorers that we’ve chosen and planning how we want to represent them during the interviews. Along with our interviews, we will also have our domain review next week.
Science
We finished our food webs this week and then did a lesson on the balance of nature. On Tuesday and Thursday the class worked on a paragraph describing how an imbalance to an ecosystem can affect the whole ecosystem. They considered the killing of wolves by farmers and how this impacted the deer population as well as other forest animals and vegetation. On Friday we had our Mother’s Day tea and so, took a break from science. I hope you all enjoyed the special time with your child. Thank you so much for coming and letting us show you how special you are.
English Spelling
We had a normal week with our sorts. The class worked on their activities and practiced their words. For grammar this week we reviewed compound words, this seemed to be a very easy concept for everyone. In our journals we focused on our mothers. The class wrote stories about their moms, poems to their moms , and things that made their moms special. I hope everyone had an opportunity to hear some of these during the Mother’s Day tea.
Art
First of all, thank you everyone for all the Teacher Appreciation gifts and treats! All the goodies were delicious and the coffee wonderful. Thank you for the sweet notes and gifts from your students. It was a very special day!
The 2nd and 3rd graders finished their collage portraits this week. They used tissue paper for hair, and they added a t-shirt with designs. These fun “Portraits with Personality” are on display on the bulletin board by the water fountain.
by Sarah Segall | May 7, 2016 | Preschool
Plantas, Aqua, y Sol
This week we started learning all about plants. The little ones learned about what the plants need to grow (sun, water, soil, and air), and plant parts (root, steam, leaves and flower). We also learned about the life cycle of plants from seed to plant. The kiddos were fascinated by the notion that a tiny seed can emerge from the ground as a plant. The little ones enjoyed what they were learning. We had a great time doing crafts and song (las plantas necesitan…tierra, aire , agua y sol…)
Letras
We reviewed the letters we have been learning in the past weeks ( L, V, B, K, R, C, G, H, J, Q, W, X). We played games to find letters in books. We also enjoyed looking into letters soup, with the kiddos who had more letters winning a price. This gave them good motivation to find the letters.
Numeros
This week we started working with number 18. We had a fun time and played and used some items sorted and counted. We used the plants topic to do different activities such as counting seeds. This was a simple activity to help kids practice counting and number recognition.
Have a good weekend!!
by Sarah Segall | May 1, 2016 | In The Loop, Preschool
Animales
This week we continued work with the animal’s habitat. For instance, we did a theme week on deserts and one fun and
successful activity was sand art. It’s a great way to add some texture to kid’s work. We did desert landscape pictures. They learned that desert animals have adapted ways to help them keep cool and use less water. Camels, for example, can go for days without food and water. Many desert animals are nocturnal, coming out only when the brutal sun has descended, to hunt. As well, we did activities with snakes and, finally; to close this awesome animal habitat topic, we did a Venn diagram activity, this activity helped them to learn more about animal’s habitats while they developed math skills!
Letras
We incorporated our touch investigation with the letter/letra Xx. The kids practice handwriting in paper and we used our fingers in salt draw it. We also used playdough to make a letter X. We sang songs, read a book of the letter Xx, and looked for the letter in our daily reading. The English letter Xx, can be pronounced (ex). While the Spanish pronunciation is (equis). As example:
México/Mexico
xílofono/xylophone
xilografia/xylography
rayos x/ x-ray.
N
úmeros
This week we continued work with number 17. We had a fun time playing and using items to sort and count. Sorting helps children make comparisons by seeing the differences and similarities in quantities. We used a cactus to count and we played a game choosing a number and then we placed the number of items that correspond to that particular number. Games are a great way to practice numbers as well as practice important sequence and taking turn skills.
by Sarah Segall | Apr 30, 2016 | In The Loop
Language Arts / artes del lenguaje
Have you ever wondered what the purpose of a newsletter is? What is the purpose of this particular newsletter? This would be a good thing to discuss with your child.
This week our focus during literacy was on expository writing, Aticulos periodisticos. Students had a challenging assignment where they had to pretend to be reporters form a magazine or a newspaper. The prompt for this writing assignment was the following: write an expository piece to inform our audience about the 4th/5th grade field trip to Columbia Springs. Students went through the writing process to accomplish this project successfully. We worked on all the different aspects to consider when writing a piece from the perspective of a third person. We discussed, once again, the differences between facts and opinions and the importance of remaining unbiased. We talked about word choice, transitions words, language structure (past tense and subject-verb agreement), interviews and quotes (direct and reported speech), and how to integrate these pieces to write clearly and effectively. The outcome was brilliant! Students had a chance to share their pieces with the class and receive valuable feedback and compliments from peers! Make sure you stop by our Spanish bulletin board next week to read their published work.
This week we continued with our short stories book club Beisbol en abril. We had the pleasure to have two groups, Connor and Madi, as well as Eva and Riley, facilitate our discussions. Great job readers! We look forward to having Bailey, Azalea and Carsen on Monday and Tuesday. Then, we will be finalizing our book club with Alli, Alana and Santiago on Thursday and Friday. Be ready!
We have finished our unit Going West. Our last reading/listening activity focused on an excerpt of the book “La hija de la fortuna” by Isabel Allende. This story, called Argonautas, is set in a little town called San Fracisco in the 1850. It tells the stories of settlers that came west in search of a better life, facing many difficulties and challenges. Next week we will have a full science week, but we will be ready to star our new Literacy unit, Our Place in this Universe, the week after next
Science / ciencia
After setting up our goals and expectations for our new science module, Living Systems, we started our first Investigation, Systems. Our guiding question was: What is a system? How can you identify a system?
Students were introduced to a system as a collection of interacting parts that work together to make a whole or produce an action. They were presented with a common device (Maya’s hiking backpack and luggage) and identified all the elements that go together to make that system. We also talked about what happens if one part brakes or stops working. Students were also introduced to the concept of subsystems. As homework, students were asked to give, draw and explain four examples of systems that they can think of. Students need to be ready to share on Monday.
History & Geography
This week we learned all about Mountain Men! We began the week by doing a read- aloud and discussion over the book Mountain Men & Trappers. We learned all about how the Mountain Men lived, how they collected supplies, and their annual meeting called a rendezvous. The students then made WANTED posters to try a recruit mountain 
men. The posters describe the qualities a Mountain Man should have and what a typical day as a Mountain Man will look like. These are posted around the school if you have not had a chance yet to take a look I will keep them posted this week as well. On Thursday many of the students dressed up like Mountain Men so that we could have our own rendezvous! Each student was given a role either as a Mountain Man or as a representative of a Fur Trading Company. Each Mountain Man and Company was given a certain number of supplies ,for 
example, a Mountain Man could have 15 beaver pelts, but then owns the American Fur Trading Company 2 pelts and a Fun Trading Company could have 10 sets a of beads, blankets, knives, and hatchets to trade for pelts. The students then began trading with each other until all the Mountain Men 
had their needed supplies for the winter and the Fur Companies had received as many pelts as they could. After the first round we discussed certain trends. Such as how things that were in 
short supplies , such as buckets, were very expensive while things that we had an abundance of like beads were pretty cheap. We then switched so that all the Mountain Men were part of a fur trading company and all the representatives were Mountain Men. The students tried to use their prior knowledge from the last round to help achieve better results this time. it was so much fun to see the strategies each student used and to watch them bargain for supplies. 
Math
This week in math we expanded upon our knowledge of triangles and being able to find different missing angles. We began by looking at how we could classify triangles. First by their sides (equilateral, isosceles, and scalene) and then by their angles (right, acute, and obtuse). We then found different tricks that help us find missing angles depending on what type of 
triangle we are working with. We began by looking a right triangles. We discovered that if you have a right triangle the two angles that are not equal to 90º must not only be acute but must also have the sum of 90º. We than worked with isosceles triangles and found that in an isosceles there will always be two equal angles that are across from the two equal sides. Using that knowledge we are able to find the missing angles of any isosceles as long as we are given at least the measure of one angle. Finally, we worked with equilateral triangles and discovered that no matter what the side lengths are an equilateral triangle will always have to angle measurements of 60º. The students do have some math homework this weekend that helps review and reinforce these concepts.
English Spelling/ Vocabulary
This week we were able to move the students back into using the Words Their Way curriculum. It was a fairly simple transition since most kids have used it in passed years.I have developed a routine for us to follow each day, with only a portion of the class taking tests on each day. The students received a 24 word list and will have one week to work in class with their words. Then they will be tested on 12 randomly selected words. Although this week was a little tricky I was able to meet one on one with everyone to make sure that everything was clear.
We also worked a lot on writing this week. We made pre-writes for 2 mini essays we wrote during class. These pre-writes not only helped us get our ideas down but also helped us organize our thoughs and make sure we have all the needed requirements. We also continued using COPS (Capitals, Order/Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling) to edit our own and each other’s writing.
Art
All the students continued working on their Mother’s Day pictures and cards. I know you’ll enjoy their colorful, awesome artwork! Next week we’ll resume a variety of art projects. I can’t believe there are only 6 more weeks of school and 6 art classes with this very creative group!
by Sarah Segall | Apr 30, 2016 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We completed our unit on Teamwork with a big assessment. We talked a lot about the importance of assessments and why we should do our best work. (We talked about how assessments are used to help teachers discover which lessons really worked and which ones didn’t. We talked about how assessments are opportunities for students to show off what they know. If they get something wrong on an assessment it helps let the teacher know this is an area we need to work on in class. Everyone seemed pretty excited about taking the assessment and did a great job staying on task.)
Our next unit is all about the ocean. This will be a fun unit for the class. Please send in any beach/ocean pictures you have of your child that might help us in our writing.
Math
We had fun adding spheres/ esferas and cubes / cubos to our farm mural. We talked about all the spheres we see and use on a regular basis. We also talked about the difference between spheres and circles. We added ‘sphere sheep’ to our mural. We learned how to make a cube cow for our mural. Making a cube really help the students understand the dimensions of 6 squares. They did a great job with this!
We really focused on subtraction within 20. Students are doing a great job using the number line to count backwards. (Counting backwards on a number line is a great subtraction strategy!)
Science
This week we continued learning about ways to take care of the Earth. We read a poem called “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”, by Shel Silverstein. We had a discussion about responsibilities and our responsibility to take care of the Earth. We talked about what happens when we don’t take care of our responsibilities. Hopefully nothing like what happened in the story! See if your child can explain what happened to Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout.
We learned about pollution and how land, air, and water all suffer from different types of pollution, and all types of pollution are caused by human activities. We discussed that if people are careful and creative, they can help reduce pollution. We learned about air pollution specifically and how pollution in one location can make even the air
that is far away in other places around the world dirty. We identified sources of air pollution, including cars and electricity produced by coal-fired power plants.
We enjoyed a visit from Ms. Ellen from Waste Connection who came in on Thursday to talk with us about recycling, landfills, and composting. We did a fun relay to help us learn about recycling as well. See if kiddo can tell you about her visit.
I hope everyone enjoyed the field trip on Friday to the Water Resource Center! I know I did!
Have a great weekend!
Art
All the students continued working on their Mother’s Day pictures. I know you’ll enjoy their colorful, happy artwork! The students also finished their “Very Hungry Caterpillar” pictures. They did a great job cutting out shapes and gluing them together to make very cute caterpillars!
by Sarah Segall | Apr 30, 2016 | In The Loop
Language Arts
In Language Arts we re read Amelia Bedilia to prepare us for the rough drafts of our book reports. The kiddos practiced using words that show order. They also discussed why they liked the book.
To organize their thoughts they used a planing web. Next week we will use the planning web to begin our rough drafts.
We discussed how, in paragraphs, we must maintain a certain theme. The children practiced reading a paragraph and crossing out the sentences that didn’t go with the theme.
Math
In math we practiced regrouping with addition and subtraction of a three digit number. We also continued our unit on mental math with subtraction. The kiddos used strategies, like the number bonds, to subtract the ones and tens. They also subtracted the ones and tens without using the aid of a number bond. The students also had fun playing a game where they had to try to mentally subtract a number from the one they picked out of the pile.
History & Geography
This week we read a trade book on Thomas Jefferson and watched a short documentary about his life. On Thursday we discussed from our read aloud that “liberty and justice for all” was not necessarily the case when the founding fathers wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. We talked about different groups who at the time were left out of these important documents, such as women , Native Americans , and Afro- Americans. On Friday the class worked together to write a short paragraph, summarizing and sequencing the ideas that they heard in the read-aloud this week. We focused on sequencing words and what makes a good conclusion sentence.
Science
We spent more time discussing the layers of the earth this week. The class filled out a chart labeling the layers of the earth and writing a sentence about each layer on the back of their paper. On Tuesday we read about volcanoes and geysers. We discussed Yellowstone National Park and we did a Venn diagram comparing volcanoes to geysers. On Thursday we made mini volcanoes that will erupt as soon as they are dry( hopefully on Monday.) We also did a geyser experiment and talked about how pressure and heat create the geyser. On Friday we read a book about volcanoes and found locations on the map of some significant volcanoes around the world as well as in space. On Friday we got a chance to look at and handle a variety of different types of rocks. We will be learning more about these in the next couple of weeks.
English Spelling
We got our new sort list this week on the long and short u sounds. We worked on sorting are words, putting them in alphabetical order, and underlining vowel patterns with different colors. For grammar this week we worked on correct capitalization and punctuation as well as sequencing ideas in a paragraph. In our journals we wrote about our favorite founding father: what we knew about them and why we like them. We also wrote the saying “April showers brings May flowers” followed by something that we did in April and something else that we plan on doing in May. On Thursday the class had free choice writing, and on Friday we wrote about our geyser experiment.
Art
All the students continued working on their Mother’s Day pictures and cards. I know you’ll enjoy their colorful, happy artwork! Next week we’ll resume a variety of art projects.
We learned so much in History this week! We began by learning about the Mormon Trail. We compared the hardships on the trail to what we learned about the Oregon Trail as well as the pioneers themselves. We learned that while pioneers on the Oregon Trail were not kind to each other, pioneers on the Mormon Trail helped each other with everything. We also learned that while although both trails were very difficult there were good times as well. We then acted like historians and read letters and watched
a video biography to make inferences about what the California Gold Rush was like. We were also able to look at the perspective of a woman who was a large influence in the Gold Rush. Finally, we learned about the Trail of Tears and Manifest Destiny.The class was split into 2 groups and, using our techniques to make inferences, the students used their textbook, websites, and direct sources to make a mini lesson. Each group then presented to the other and answered any questions. It was great to see the students doing research, collaborating, and answering questions for others. They all did such an amazing job!
information to give various possible leg lengths. We then discovered how to find the missing angles in parallelograms, rhombuses, and trapezoids. We played with different polygons by cutting off their angles and seeing which combinations made 180° and which make 360°. On Friday we reviewed the entire chapter by playing math baseball! I took the practice test and divided the questions by difficulty into 4 groups. The class was divided into 2 teams and while one team was up to bat the other worked on ALEKS. The student up to bat decides how hard of a question they want if it is correct they can move to its base it not that was 1 out. After 3 outs we switched. The students loved it and it was 
such a fun way to review the information. Next Monday will be our Chapter 13 tests! I reminded the students to look over past homework assignments and I will be available through e-mail all weekend.
