End-of-Week Update, 10/10

Cameron and Shaw used teamwork to BOTH earn "celebrity singer" status this week!
We're so proud of their joint efforts to be outstanding - just keep swimming!

What we've been up to:
You'll be astounded at all Room 20 students have been doing in the past week leading up to our Columbus Day long weekend!

In writing, we started brand new personal narratives.  Before moving on, though, we met with buddies who gave us feedback using a personal narrative checklist of everything we've learned so far in writing.  Mrs. Adams gave us lots of advice about our writing, too!  We used all that advice to set an intention (make a goal) for our next story.  We have new writing partners and new stories going!  We learned how to avoid writing "Twinkie dialogue" by adding noisy / quiet tag lines, adding actions with our dialogue, and adding adverbs to show how the dialogue was spoken.  We started our new drafts (lots of us using dialogue leads) and are working on drafting and revising / editing next week!  Stay tuned for an upcoming writing "party" in the next week!

Shaw and Matt setting writing goals!

Isabella and Liam setting writing goals!

Audria and Destiny setting writing goals!

In math, we wrapped up our study of patterns, including geometric patterns.  Check out the photos of us building geometric patterns below!  We learned some new problem solving strategies, including making a table and using drawings to help us keep track of our thinking.  We took our Topic 2 test and tried our best to read / follow directions and check our work carefully before handing it in!  Next week we're starting a brand new topic!

In science, we learned a lot more about weather!  We learned about air masses - types of air masses, and how they are formed.  We also learned about fronts - cold, warm, stationary, and occluded.  We know the symbols and how they are formed!  We learned about the jet stream - a giant "river" of air that blows around the planet and affects our weather (and our flights!)  For "Mix-it-Up Day" with Room 21, we completed a fun activity with Skittles that helped us to see the difference between weather and climate.  Ask us about how Skittles taught us such a sophisticated concept!

In reading, we've been working on asking questions and thinking about what types of questions we're asking as we read.  We've been focusing on asking "thick" questions, but we know it's important to ask clarifying questions when something doesn't make sense.  Some "thick" questions we've been asking have been about characters and their decisions and relationships, the author's decisions, and the overall message of the book.  In The Sisters Grimm, we've been asking a LOT of questions because the plot is getting really complicated!  We can't wait to keep reading next week.

Next week may be a short week, but we have a lot planned!  Be sure to leave a comment for us below!

What's coming up:

• If you haven't signed up for a parent/teacher conference in October, please do so with the Sign-Up Genius link that was sent home.
• Students will need to wear sneakers for both PE and health for the next few weeks.  This is Monday and Tuesday for our class.