The kids had a wonderful time doing the gift swap today!  I want to wish you all Happy Holiday's and I hope all of the kids have a restful vacation.  I will see them all on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.

• In language arts we are finally finished reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  We watched the movie this week.  The kids really seemed to love the movie.  After vacation we will go right into a spelling unit.  

• Our math unit this week was a continuation from last week: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 100 and 1,000 with regrouping.  Yesterday we did some fun math puzzles.  The students have to solve math problems and there is a picture next to each that they color and piece together with the answers to make an animal.  We hung them all up on the bulletin board in Mrs. Harris's classroom.  Our next unit after vacation is: Tell time to the nearest half hour and relate time to events.

• In social studies we are learning about the first settlements in the colonies.  We talked about the Lost Colony of Roanoke and wrote a newspaper article together with our theory on what happened to the 120 people who disappeared from there.  We also started talking about the the ship that the Pilgrims arrived on, The Mayflower, and what that voyage was like for them.  Next we will learn about the homes and villages in the colonies.   

• In science class we finished talking about how invertebrates are classified by their body characteristics.  Last week we talked about the characteristics of snails and an earthworms.  This week we through pictures and video we observed and label an ant and a spider.  As a group we played a fun review game for candy then took a quiz on these four invertebrates characteristics.  After vacation we will talk about how most kinds of invertebrates live in the ocean.    

We had another Fun Friday today in science class!  Next Friday, to have some fun and celebrate the holidays we will do a gift swap- I got all of the gifts.  I would also like to have a pizza party with the kids on Friday.  This pizza party will be reward based. All of the kids will need to "buy" into the party with their Mrs. Landry Bucks that they earn for being ready to learn.  On Wednesday we discussed the expectations:

• Be present at school (no sleeping)

• Bathroom first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of class

• Respectful to teachers

• Being nice to each other and staying out of other people's business 

• Be prepared to learn: Pencil, Chromebook, No distractions 

• Only on your chromebook when given permission 

• In language arts we are finally finishing up reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  We will be watching the movie next week- I sent a note home with the kids about this today.  

• Our math unit this week was: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 100 and 1,000 with regrouping.  We will continue this unit into next week.  Our next unit (probably after vacation) is: Tell time to the nearest half hour and relate time to events.

• In social studies we started to learning about Colonial America.  Our first unit is a general introduction to the thirteen original colonies.  We created a timeline showing the European settlement of the thirteen colonies and we discussed and labeled the geographic groups.  Next week we will start the second unit, learning about the first settlements in the colonies.

• In science class we started our unit on invertebrates.  The first topic we learned about was that animals without backbones are called invertebrates.  Then we talked about how invertebrates are classified by their body characteristics.  Through videos and diagrams we observed and labeled a snail and an earthworm.  We will observe and label an ant and a spider next week, followed by a review game and quiz.  Then we will talk about how most kinds of invertebrates live in the ocean.    

We had Fun Friday in Science class today.  The kids had a great time playing Monopoly Junior.  

Many of the kids have hit the 25 lessons passed benchmark for iReady and have received their choice of a full size candy bar!  A few have some work to still do.  The kids work on iReady reading one day each week in language arts class and iReady math one day each week in math class.  The entire school works on iReady lessons every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  If you would like more details on how your child is doing please email me and let me know.  

As it is getting colder please make sure that your child has a winter coat on.  You never know when a situation may arise on a bus or at school.  

• In language arts we are still reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  We went to the library yesterday to get new books.  

• Our math unit this week was: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 100 and 1,000 without regrouping. Our next unit is: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 100 and 1,000 with regrouping.

• In social studies we finished learning about Native Americans!  We are starting to learning about Colonial America.  Our first unit is a general introduction to the thirteen original colonies.   

• In science class this week we learned that vertebrates have developed many forms of self defense. like camouflage, sharp nails and teeth, and poison.  We did a Mystery Science mini lesson called: “Is it possible to become invisible?” In this mini-lesson, students consider whether "invisibility" could be a property of a material, and are introduced to a clever technique used to create an effect that is similar to invisibility.  In the activity, Animal Hide-and-Seek, students discover different ways that animals hide from predators, and then use what they learn to hide their own secret messages.  We also talked about how some vertebrates build homes.  Next week we will start learning about invertebrates.  

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Last week in social studies the kids completed an assignment using Google slides to practice if they needed to complete an assignment virtually.  They all did a wonderful job!   

• In language arts we are still reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio and will be reading this in class over the next few weeks.  We have been listen to audio of the book.  The kids like the audio because "he reads faster and then we can watch the movie".  We are about half way through the book.  I am really trying to get it done before the holiday break so we can watch the movie.   

• Our math unit this week was: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 0 and 100 with regrouping.  Overall they are great at regrouping for addition, but still making some errors with regrouping for subtraction.  We will continue to work on this unit next week. Our next unit is: Find the sum or difference of whole numbers between 100 and 1,000 without regrouping.

• In social studies we finished learning about the Navajo tribe.  We wrapped this tribe up by using crayon resistance for the students to create their own Navajo rug design.  We learned about the Iroquois of the Northeast this week.  Next week we will finish our Native American unit up by learning about the Seminole tribe of the Southeast.  Our topic in social studies will be learning about Colonial America, which I think we will start the end of next week.  On another note Mr. Carnevale my co teacher for social studies is leaving, his last day was today.  Administration is actively looking for a new social studies teacher.

• In science class this week we that vertebrates have developed different ways of acquiring food.  This included learning about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.  We also did a Mystery Science called “Why do bears hibernate?”  In this mini-lesson, students reason about why some animals hibernate and others do not. In the activity, Get Ready to Hibernate, students play a memory card game where they pretend to be bears searching for food. As they play the game, they consider how different foods might affect bears as they prepare for their winter hibernation.  Next week we'll be learning about how vertebrates have developed many forms of self defense.