Christmas Around the World!

This morning, students completed a Google Classroom Assignment to learn how people all over the world celebrate the winter holidays of Christmas and Hannukah. 


Student pairs followed links to various websites and then used their nonfiction reading skills to find specific facts and details.  Everyone really enjoyed learning how other countries celebrate! 

 Evy and Jonathan listening closely for key information!

 Katherine and Jordan make a great team!

 Tara and Kuin hunting for facts!

 Jack and Kieran thinking deeply about what they're watching.

 Nathaniel and Will enjoying the video on Italy.

 Clara and Phoebe - the dynamic duo!

 Nate and John did a great job on this "webhunt!"

 Beckett and Dylan were all business!

Ella and Avery working hard.

What's Been Happening in Room 8?

It has been a tremendously busy month here at school.  Just before Thanksgiving break, our classroom had an opportunity to meet with Sixth Grade Buddies.  They shared all of the wonderful work they've been doing on their geography projects.  The sixth graders did a spectacular job sharing what they've learned from their research.

In science, we've been learning about electrical energy.  Students have had several opportunities to explore static electricity with objects in the classroom.  As you can imagine, everyone had a blast with this!  For this lesson, we've learned about electrical charges and how different charges interact.  Students are using vocabulary such as attract, repel, static electricity, discharge, and electrical charge.  In class, students have explored how to create static electricity with various objects, and today, we used six different brands of dryer sheets to see if we could eliminate static electricity.  Thank you for the donations everyone!

Throughout November we learned how to solve two-step word problems using bar models to represent our thinking.  Recently, we have started learning about multiplication and division.  To help your child work more accurately and efficiently in class, please have them continue to practice their multiplication tables at home each day.  Even 5-10 minutes every afternoon will make a difference!

In reading, we have been learning about nonfiction text features.  This term, students will be using these nonfiction text features to further their comprehension.  During the next several months, we will be identifying main ideas and details, comparing and contrasting, and exploring cause and effect.  You will see all sorts of text and graphic organizers coming home on Fridays that reflect the type of reading and thinking that we're doing in class.

As I mentioned during conferences, Term 2 is focused on Opinion Writing.  Right now, students are finishing their first essays.  They could choose topics from:  1) Should people be allowed to have wild animals as pets? 2) Should schools allow more time for recess? 3) Should students have homework? and 4) Should children be allowed screen time during the school week?  Please look for these to come home soon!

Last week, we participated in the Hour of Code with Mrs. Kosakowski.  Everyone was able to explore coding on the iPads by using Lightbot Junior.  Students were so wonderful at helping one another to conquer new levels!  Even I gave it a try....but I must admit, I didn't do as well as the kids!

Next week will be a quick week.  I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season.  May you and your families enjoy a wonderful winter break!

Hyperdocs and Padlet

This afternoon students in Room 8 worked on a Hyperdoc as an extension to our reading of the book, The Wild Robot.  They were able to access the hyperdoc through our Google Classroom, select the links they wanted to explore, and then respond to what they read or watched by commenting on a padlet.  Students really enjoyed learning about real robots!

Below is a peek at our padlet.... 

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Celebrating Creativity!

This month we're celebrating "creativity" at school, and students in Room 8 have certainly applied their most creative thinking to their learning this week.

In science, students worked in small groups to build "motion models' as a performance task for Lesson 1.  Students needed to create two models that would demonstrate a pattern of motion - either a back and forth, zigzag, straight, or round and round motion. 

After watching our Monday Mystery Doug video on the human skeletal system, we made our own "x-rays" to show the bones in our hands.  Students were so excited about making these, and now they hang in our windows for all to see!  Great job everyone!

What's new in Room 8?

Our focus in reading right now is on story elements:  character, setting, and plot.  Students are learning to use a character's words, actions, thoughts, and feelings to determine character traits.  When your child is reading at home, ask them to tell you about the main character in their book and  have them support their ideas with evidence.  Engage them in discussion about whether or not they like the character and why.  These types of discussions about reading truly help to boost comprehension.

In these photos, students are reading a short story with a partner and coding the text clues to determine information about the main character.  You will find this short story and the activity sheet in this week's Friday Folder.

Next week we will be learning about story setting.  The setting in our classroom read aloud, The Wild Robot, is crucial to the story and how the events unfold.  Students will get an understanding of how story setting often impacts story character and plot.  Again, talk to your child about this when they are doing their nightly reading.

As I mentioned in last week's entry, students are now up and running with Google Classroom.  This week, students practiced making a Google Doc.  Students are just learning how to navigate the tool bar, so being able to set up a document is a big job!

This afternoon, I assigned students the task of creating their very own Google Doc through our Google Classroom.  Everyone was successful in choosing a font, centering a title, bolding and underlining text, listing sentences and numbering them, and then submitting the document back to me successfully.  My hope is that once everyone is comfortable with this process, we can begin doing some homework assignments through Google Classroom.

In writing, students have been working on their second personal narratives as well as a spooky story for Halloween.  Many students have finished the final drafts, and you will find copies in this week's folder.  If you don't see it, your child is still finishing and it will come home next week. 

You will notice that the narratives have a great deal of detail and some nice dialogue as well.  These are skills that we have been working on in class - how to "stretch" a moment by providing lots of detail, using dialogue in just the right places to create interest, replacing boring verbs or adjectives with more sophisticated choices.  Many students were feeling pretty accomplished this week, and I'm pretty proud of their efforts!

Happy weekend everyone, and as always, thank you for all you do at home to support your child's learning!

A Visit from our Student Council Members

We were so lucky to have two of our sixth grade student council members come to class and share a very special book with us this afternoon.  These wonderful boys shared the book, What Do You Do With an Idea by Kobi Yamada.  The book celebrates creativity, which is one of our Life is Good superpowers.

The best part was the inspirational talk that these boys gave the class after the reading.  Words of wisdom about the importance of being true to yourself and perseverance.  Well done Cam and Zack!