Week of March 5-8

Another successful week in Room 5 is over!  Kids are entertaining, excited, wonderful and full of curiosity!

In writing, we are continuing with the process of our opinion/persuasive piece.  Students chose a topic last week and started researching to back up their opinions. Topics students chose include: all classrooms should have class pets, no uniforms, more playground equipment and a few others.  I'm excited to see their final products.

This week all Book Clubs will be finishing their books and having their final meetings.  Some students took their Book Clubs seriously and worked hard to dig deeper in the book and use that to enhance and give insight in their meetings, while others didn't go the extra mile and kept it surface level.  This has been an excellent learning tool for all of us.  They will begin a culmination project of their books this week and am hoping to be done by Monday of next week to begin our next set of novels.  Students will have the choice between doing a newspaper, storyboard, timeline, diary or character portrayal of their novel.

In projects, we continued with our science unit with exploration of shadows.  Students measured their shadows throughout the day on Monday, created a bar graph and reflected on reasons why their shadows changed.  We gained a better understanding of stars and constellations and finished the week with researching "I wonder..." statements.  Over the past few weeks, students have posted "I wonder..." questions.  This week, they chose one and worked independently to explore answers to their questions. We began student presentations on Thursday and will continue throughout the week.  We will begin our study of Earth's Systems on Monday by learning about the hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.

• We took a few brain breaks with GoNoodle songs that the kids enjoyed dancing and getting some energy out. 
• Science Project supplies needed by THIS THURSDAY!  Please send in the following items with your by this Thursday:   jar (mason or sauce/pickle jar size, wide mouth) or 2 liter plastic bottle (clear if possible), a small plant for a terrarium, bag of small rocks/ pebbles.
• Second trimester ended on Thursday.  Parent Teacher conferences will be held on Friday, April 13th. The conferences will be student led. 
• Planetarium Field Trip to Reno is rescheduled for Friday, April 20th at 10:00 am. More information will be sent out a few weeks prior to the date.  
• A little side note:  Your kids are so awesome!! Love these kids!