Catch up with Room 20!

Many thanks to the Franklin Veterinary Clinic for an informative and fun visit!
Read more below about their visit below.

We've been super busy since our last blog post!

Social Studies - Our Canada test is tomorrow!   We used the Chromebooks to review for the test and to explore more about Canada with a TIME for Kids website.  Check it out: http://www.timeforkids.com/destination/canada!  Now we're moving onto Mexico!  If you have any travel experiences, cultural, geographic, or other information or expertise about Mexico, let us know!  In our study of North America (Canada, Mexico, and the US), we have been learning about native tribes of people (they're called "First Nations" in Canada) that were living in North America long before European settlers came.  We enjoyed an awesome 2-hour program with Mrs. Silvia from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in Providence, RI.  (Thank you, PCC!)  The program was called "Dig It!" and we learned all about archaeologists and how they uncover clues about ancient peoples.  We got to reconstruct pottery, count tree rings, and dig and sift for "clues" in an archaeological site!  Check out the photos below!

Math - We finished our study of multiplication and took our first online test!  We learned how to multiply using the Windows method and the area model.  These are two ways to multiply that involve breaking up numbers into tens and ones and finding partial products!  We have been working hard on reading, thinking about, solving, and checking our answers to word problems.  Sometimes word problems are not what they seem!  Sometimes we do a ton of work and then never really answer the question!  We've been working hard on doing thoughtful math work.  This week, we're starting with division.  We worked on division fact families and extended division facts.  We are continuing to practice our multiplication and division facts daily!  We're working on getting multiplication and division facts through 12x12.  We can do it with daily fact practice!

Writing - We have done a lot of work with our fiction stories and are now starting to draft!  We looked carefully at some "expert" fiction leads in published picture and chapter books.  We tried to write some "inspired" leads based on the ones we really loved.  Next, we'll be drafting our fiction stories using our timelines and planning boxes!  Stay tuned - these stories are going to be epic!  With our mix-it-up groups, we're working on writing scripts of our favorite scenes from The Sisters Grimm.  We've been collaborating using Google Docs and are working on including stage directions, lines for each character, and similes!  We can't wait to finish typing our scripts and presenting them to our classmates.

Reading - Now that we're done with The Sisters Grimm, we're starting a new read aloud book, Little Dog, Lost.  We did some pre-reading activities and learned that the book is about a stray dog and a boy that really wants a dog but can't get one.  We had a special visit from the Franklin Veterinary Clinic to help us learn more about pet ownership and stray animals!  It was a fun and informative presentation - check out the pictures below!  We're starting to read Little Dog, Lost this week - can't wait to tell you about it!