Week of January 24th

As I was sitting and working on report cards, I was reflecting on what a nice class I have this year. The kids are all kind, respectful, engaged, and enthused about learning. That makes me one lucky teacher.

We had a four day week but still managed to stay pretty busy. I kicked off our new science unit on electricity by showing a Bill Nye video on electrical safety. I really try to hit home how dangerous it can be and is nothing to fool around with, but if done properly working with electricity is completely safe. We also explored circuits by taking advantage of SnapCircuits and SquishyCircuits that we have available in the Maker Space. If you haven't yet, take a look at the pictures from this activity in my photos section.

In math we worked on computing the area of a smaller rectangle within a larger one while only being given some of the dimensions; this concept proved a little challenging for many of the kids. We wrapped up our area and perimeter unit with a post test on Friday. Monday we start a long unit on fractions and decimals.

The kids have been typing their essays into a document in order to take the next step of revision and editing. This can be quite an arduous process for many of them. I strongly encourage the kids to use the home row of the keyboard rather than hunt and peck, even though it might take longer. I am anxious to get to the publishing stage, as I imagine the kids are too. I look forward to a full week next week and the start of several new units.