Students warmed-up with some grammar and cursive instruction. We read aloud a book titled, Babushka's Doll. Students identified the author's message and journaled their response. 

In writing, we kicked off our Titanic informational writing unit with a short video. Students documented their "reliable" source (Scholastic News article). Next, we read and found important information from the article to add to our notes.

After lunch on Monday/Tuesday, we enjoyed the remainder of the moon base presentations. On Thursday/Friday, we conducted a lab and observed how water behaves on a slope. We compared the sizes of the water domes and the angle of the slope.  

Students finished revising, editing, publishing, and illustrating their "Living in Space" essays. (If students were absent to finish in class, they will be sent home to complete)

We started our next science unit, Water and Climate. Students completed a lab and observed what happens when water falls on different surfaces. We documented our careful observations in our science notebooks.

Students read "A Report from the Blue Planet" and answered comprehension questions.

After lunch, we spent the hour enjoying our moon project presentations. They have been fabulous! We will finish up on Monday/Tuesday. 

We warmed up with a grammar/cursive review. Students' cursive is really coming along! In writing, we finished editing and most students finished publishing their "Living in Space" essays. 

Students learned about the Sun and other stars with a video, comprehension exercise, and a competitive game of Kahoot.

M/Th students finished their Van Gogh inspired moon colony art, while Th/F students completed a Mystery Science lesson on "How long can humans survive in space?" These lessons will flip flop in the near future. 

Don't forget, Moon Base-Camp projects are due soon. I can't wait to see them!!

On Monday/Tuesday, we began reading our next issue of Scholastic News before attending our first ASB assembly of the year. The message delivered by our wonderful ASB students was about EMPATHY.

For writing, we finished drafting our supporting reasons in our opinion essays. We then shared some student samples and worked on revising our writing.

In science, we finished our moon elevation maps and completed our salt dough relief maps of the moon's south pole. Thank you, families, for all of your contributions!

Also in science, we finished recording, calculating, and comparing our data for our "Light but Strong" engineering challenge. The winning structure could hold 47 times its weight! Wow!

Lastly, our students on Friday were treated by a visit from the girls volleyball team from Montana State Billings. They helped us complete projects to decorate for our Harvest Crawl.

For warm-up, we reviewed grammar and continued cursive through shapes. 

In writing,  we watched a video of a day in the life of an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. We added information from that source to update our opinion graphic organizer. We will formally draft next week.

Students finished shading their elevation maps of the Moon's south pole.

Both groups of students finished engineering a mobile launcher that was "Light but Strong."  We tested them all to failure and will calculate and compare the data next week

For warm-up, we reviewed grammar and continued cursive through shapes. Students worked on iReady. 

We introduced an opinion writing prompt and learned how to use a rubric to self-evaluate. We then reviewed our own writing and noticed areas for improvement.

Students continued taking notes in their science notebooks using various sources. We started laying out our moon maps using a grid to keep it to scale. We shaded to represent different elevations. 

Some students started their tangram puzzle of a lunar rover. 

For warm-up, we reviewed grammar and introduced cursive through shapes. Students worked on iReady assessments and selected their stop-drop-and read chapter books. Monday/Thursday students read a tall tale, "Stormalong", then completed reading activities to go with it.

Continuing on with our moon Artemis studies, students revisited what it takes to be an astronaut and started a lunar tangram puzzle. Tuesday/Friday students were treated to a visit from a student's uncle, who was part of Nasa's Artemis program. We had a lively Q & A session! 

Our "Light but Strong" engineering build will resume next week.  Students are challenged to build a mobile platform that is light, yet strong enough to hold a heavy load. Yay team work!

Students added to their notes on the events of September 11th. We read a Scholastic article and watched the accompanying video. We then drafted our first paragraph together and started our illustration of the New York skyline. 

We are continuing our learning of the moon and Artemis program through readings and video clips. Students participated in a lunar impact crater lab and sketched the anatomy of a crater in their science notebooks.  

Students completed a "The Science of Me" activity where we got to know a little bit about each other. We read aloud and took notes on the book, Fireboat, to begin learning about the events on September 11th. Students were then challenged with an engineering activity to build towers using index cards.

In science we shared what we knew about the moon and compared waxing versus waning. Students also visualized crescent versus gibbous and half/quarter moon with a demonstration. Thank you to Rosie and Declan for your contributions!