Working, working, working...

This week, as usual, saw a lot of focused work in our classroom.  We continued our work reading historical fiction, we learned to write thesis statements, and we graphed and analyzed some data.  During our literacy time we have been focussed on reading historical fiction, the title we are using is The Little House in the Big Woods.   This book really lends itself to learning to digest and "unpack" historical fiction, it is rich with details and vivid imagery.  We have been reading chapters, and using outside sources to increase the understanding that we have about the setting, time, and actions in the book.

We have also been using this book during our writing time.We have been using the characters in this book as a basis for learning to craft thesis statements and to back these up with evidence.  We practiced one of my favorite skills on Thursday, identifying quotes to use.  Students gained the understanding that a quote from a book can be more than a piece of dialogue, but any text from a book.  We also worked on the length of quotes that can be used for maximum effect.

During our discovery and math time we have been working on division, as well as graphing data collected as we roll mini-skateboards down cardboard ramps.  The data we collected was ramp angle, and the speed that the skateboard travelled.  We translated this data into a graph, and are working on interpreting the results.

 Authentic reflections from the week:

This week, in Writing/Reading, we were working on a thesis. We also learned to “angle” a story. On Monday, I had the chair. The book that the whole class is reading is called Little House in the Big Woods. We finished reading The Magician's Elephant yesterday.

This week in math we measured the speed of ramps in our math journals. And it was fun because of the measuring why the measuring because the measuring can be fun for learning.  Well that's the week bye bye!

This week in Art, we have been finishing our HUMAN BODY unit. So far we have made flexible proportionate paper human body models, then we traced in a position onto a piece of paper, decorated them, cut them out, glued them to a colored paper sheet, and did some more decorating.  My picture is of Gabrielle Douglas in the 2015 all around tournament. Right above the Picture on the red paper it says “This Girl is on FIRE” then I made a “Fire” out of tissue paper.  

In this week we have done lots of fun stuff like in reatech we are doing a new challenge with cunects. It is fun to do it because we made the cars and we test stuff out and then record it on a graph. And today we have pe and we are doing a relay fun game called chipp reck,we have to have lots of focus in this game and you have to be aware of the stuff that you yous like if you have a scooter and  you do not know how to get to the other side you have to think what will be useful, and you need to be helpful if people need help getting over to the other side, and you need to see what people have in mind. In art we are still working on our project, and I am almost done with mine! I really like math because we are doing some fun graphing speed and digress, I think I did a good job doing it.


I hope you have a restful and relaxing weekend.

-Dave