Welcome Back!! (January 4-8)

Well, we made it through out first week back from the biggest break of the school year. I don't know if it was the same for the students, but that 6 o'clock alarm clock was hard to get used to. It was a very refreshing week though. I'm certainly glad to be back into it. We certainly got a lot accomploished. From multiplying with fractions to learning the basics of sound.

The biggest weight lifted off my shoulders will also be our picture of the week. It was certainly a lesson I got to be taught by my first class. I had decided, considering the Solar System becomes big in our science studies third and fourth terms, and we're learning area and diameter of circles in math, I wanted to combine the two and make mobiles that contained the planets in order with their radius, diameter, circumference and area of their circle. I slated 2 hours for this project before the holiday break thinking we could more than finish it in that time. After another hour before the break and three more hours this week, we've finally completed them. A total of six hours on project I originally hoped to finish in two and they turned out fantastic and are currently hanging above our desks in the room! Here is an example of one of or students' work:
There's one other picture I'd like to include this week just because it shows the class in action. One of the ways I informally assess the students is through whiteboard participation. Every kid has a whiteboard that they do the work and write their answer on, and then all hold it up. This shows me that each student is participating. It also shows me how well all the students are understanding the content. Here is our class in action:
As for the coming week, the students have quite a bit of studying to look forward to. At the end of the week, we will be taking our term two assessment in Math. We will also be finishing up our unit on sound and then reviewing the term: heat, light, and sound, which we will test on the following week. Language arts this week will be normal. Our story this week is called "Fall Secrets". Keep in mind though, that our term 2 assessment for language will be the following week as well.

With all these tests coming up, I guess I'll send out the reminder as well that term two will be ending on January 21. Current progress reports were sent home to be signed on Monday, so if you didn't see it, talk to your student. :) Book orders were also sent home this week. They will be due back by January 15 if you wish to order anything. My final reminder is that book reports are this week. Your student should have their assigned date. There will be five presented a day.

And with that, I will bid my adieu for this week. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” -Edith Lovejoy Pierce