End-of-Week Update, 10/17

Check it out!  Another TWO students from Room 20 were chosen as celebrity singers this week!
Way to go Isabella and Joey!!

What we've been up to:
Last week was an action-packed week filled with mammoth amounts of writing, reading, math, and a new unit about Canada!  Check out the video we watched on Friday - it got us psyched up to learn about Canada (and visit someday, too!)

In writing, we have been working on continuing our second personal narrative drafts!  We continued to use the new dialogue strategies we learned last week.  This week, we learned about four awesome ways to end our stories - important dialogue, a feeling / emotion, a lesson learned, and a circular ending.  Circular endings are hard, but we really love them!  Sometimes good endings are "combo endings" which combine one or more of those types.  We also learned how to properly include a flash back or flash forward in our writing so it's not confusing to the readers.  We learned (from a "Harry Potter" movie clip) that playing around with time in our stories is tricky business, so we are careful when we include flash backs and flash forwards!  Finally, some of us have started (and will continue next week) completing a mega big revising and editing checklist that includes everything we've done so far in writing.  It's a lot!  More next week on final copies and a publishing party!  Stay tuned!

In math, we started learning about place value - how to read and write big numbers using place value words, how to compare numbers using <, >, and =, and how to round numbers to different place values.  We have a place value quiz on Topic 3 on Wednesday.  We think we'll be ready if we can focus on the place value chart, review the steps to rounding, and use our number sense with each problem we encounter!  We are still working on playing multiplication fact fluency games and getting our facts mastered!

In reading, we've been working on using all of the strategies we've learned so far - wondering, asking thick questions, and visualizing as we read and listen actively.  We've been focused on asking questions about the author's choices (especially since we're authors ourselves!)  In The Sisters Grimm, we've been very excited to make predictions based on the clues and cliffhangers Michael Buckley has been leaving us.  We've noticed his writing is very suspenseful!  We can't wait to read more next week.

In social studies, we've started a new unit about Canada!  We saw an awesome video (see above) of short clips that Canadians video taped of all sorts of fun things you can do in Canada.  We didn't realize how many outdoor activities you can do that aren't in the snow!  We met with "Mix-it-up" partners from Miss Farrell's class to start a KWL chart.  We listed what we already know and wrote a list of what we're wondering for future research as our unit continues.  We can't wait to complete a research project with our new Canada partners from Room 21!

Stay tuned for more excitement next week!

What's coming up:

• Topic 3 place value quiz will be Wednesday, 10/22
• Weather unit test will be Friday, 10/24
• Health class requires sneakers for the next few weeks (Tuesdays)
• Cold weather is expected!  Appropriate outdoor clothing is necessary to go out for recess and PE.
• Parent / teacher conferences will be 10/30 and 10/31.  Please sign up with the Sign-Up Genius link.