Week of February 7th

Super week in Room 213. We participated in a couple of special events that really made this past week special. We had an in-school field trip on magnetism that was an excellent extension to our electricity unit. The kids cycled through five different stations with varying activities involving magnets. We learned about magnetic poles and how the Earth is really a very large magnet. Thanks again to the PTA and Ignite for this fabulous experience. Our regular science lessons this week focused on circuits and how to make them complete, and what's inside a light bulb. Did you know that it takes around 12 'D' batteries to get a filament of a 60 watt bulb to begin to glow, and 30 'D' batteries light it up completely?

Our other special event this week was taking part in Global Play Day. For the better part of the entire day Wednesday, the kids had unstructured play time. It was wonderful watching them interact with each other and trying to decide whom they wanted to play with, or what, next. It is truly hard for me to believe that this needs to be a global initiative because kids have forgotten this important skill, but none-the-less I was happy that my kids could benefit from this experience.

We continued our study of fractions in math and learned how to switch between improper fractions and mixed numbers. We looked at adding mixed numbers and will move towards subtracting fractions from whole numbers this week. We also will begin to understand fractions of a set. Hopefully the kids are gaining a better understanding of fractions and how to work and manipulate them. It is important that they are able to accurately name equivalent fractions to any given fraction as this skill must be solid in order to add, subtract, or compare fractions to one another.

Many of the kids have finished their personal opinion essays and those that haven't are in the final stages. I look forward to reading these and sharing them with you as well. Regardless of how any single essay might appear, I know that the vast majority of my class has substantially improved in the skill of creating a thesis statement and supporting it with appropriate and valid reasons. Our reading unit has turned into a dynamic entity unto itself as the kids finish up writing their scripts for their PSA's. I am well aware of how excited they are to film and I know how excited I am to see how they present their research in this format. Although they certainly look cute and adorable on screen, the underlying material they present is intelligently written and thoughtfully disseminated. Such a cool project for all involved.

Lastly, I'd like to give a MAJOR SHOUT OUT to my entire class. I challenged them at the beginning of the month to win the Reading Rally trophy for January. The winning class is the class that logs the most entries into Mrs. Diekman's Reading Rally spreadsheet. I was so proud of them when I heard the results and we all got very excited as our class was recognized by Mrs. Littmann during Friday announcements for the entire school to hear. GO ELMAN'S!!!