End-of-Week Update, 1/16

Our study of heredity really blossomed this week!  We learned about an important scientist, Gregor Mendel, who studied tall and short pea plants and discovered "dominant" and "recessive" genes.  "Dominant" genes are strong and, if they're present, they determine the trait of an offspring.  "Recessive" genes are weaker, so they only determine the trait if no dominant genes are around.  Dominant and recessive traits came to life when we created fictional worm families called "gen-o-worms!"  Sounds funny, right?  We chose Skittles to represent genes and used our knowledge of dominant and recessive genes to figure out what color head, body, and tail our worms would have.  We also learned about animal adaptations and how animals have changed over time to survive!  We researched the behavioral and physical adaptations of different animals such as the lion, the great horned owl, the poison dart frog, and the caribou (to name just a few!)  Our heredity test is Friday (1/23).  Everything we need to know is on the study guide!

In math, we learned a lot about fractions!  We learned how to compare fractions with < and >, how to put fractions in order from least to greatest, and how to place fractions on a number line.  There are so many strategies we've been learning about and practicing to help with comparing fractions!  We've been using fraction strips, number lines, benchmark fractions ("easy" fractions like 1/2 that we're really comfy with), and the E.F.R. (equivalent fraction rule).  Our fraction test is Wednesday (1/21).  Everything we need to know is on the study guide!

In writing, we've made a lot of progress with our personal opinion essays!  We narrowed the ideas we generated with our "heart maps" to one important topic.  Then, we tried to think about what we really wanted to say about our topics to write focused thesis statements.  Thesis statements need to be an opinion (not a fact), need to be about something that is close to the author's heart, and need to be strong and specific.  We spent a long time working on really making sure our thesis statements followed these rules.  Then, we worked on thinking about the 3 biggest, most important, and most convincing reasons why our thesis statements were true.  We wanted to make sure our reasons were specific, distinct (different from each other), parallel (worded similarly), and supportive of our thesis statements.  We're still working on our reasons and will fill in more evidence for our essays next week!

In reading, we've been working a lot on identifying character traits.  Authors aren't really coming out and telling us that characters are "kind," "unpleasant," or "brave."  Instead, we're finding that authors leave little "clues" such as characters' actions, dialogue, thoughts, or behaviors and we can use those clues to help us determine exactly what type of person the character is.  Check out some of the fun picture books we read as we practiced identifying character traits!  Next week, we'll be using the character trait bookmark for our at-home reading (there's a link for downloading the bookmark on the right side of the blog!)

Next week we'll be starting a new read aloud book, a new social studies topic, and a new fractions unit!  Stay tuned!  

End of Week Update, 1/9

“Tweet!  Tweet!”  there goes the whistle!  It was boot camp and Mrs. Adams was the drill sergeant.  (She seemed to like the whistle a little too much…)  You’re probably wondering what we were doing in boot camp when we were supposed to be in school.  We completed "Essay Boot Camp" this week.  We had to drop and give 50 push ups.  Just kidding!  We had to write a whole essay in one sitting!  Our goal was to go through the steps of writing an essay and remember what makes an essay an essay (an opinion, three good reasons, and examples to prove our reasons).  We wrote essays about why Kennedy School is the best.  We think they're really convincing!  We also started thinking of essay topics that are close to our own hearts.  We're trying to choose topics that we have a lot of opinions about.  We'll start planning out our own personal opinion essays next week!

In reading, we've been doing work with non-fiction reading as a way of wrapping up our latest read aloud book, Little Dog, Lost.  We were so happy at the end of the book when Mark finally gets a dog!  It got us thinking about what type of dog would be best for our families.  We researched lots of different types of dogs using non-fiction books and online resources from Animal Planet.  We tried to think of what we need in a dog and what we can offer to a dog as well as all of the other people who live in our houses.  Once we compiled our research, we started to write non-fiction essays about what type of dog would be best for our families.  We started typing them on the Chromebooks and Mrs. Adams popped in to give us feedback as we worked!  We're hoping to finish, print, and share them with you next week!

In science, we have started our unit on heredity!  We've been learning a lot this week about the difference between inherited traits and non-inherited traits.  Inherited traits are those that you're born with and you inherit from your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors.  Non-inherited traits are not inherited and you're not born with them.  We played a fun game through the American Museum of Natural History's website (http://ology.amnh.org/genetics) that helped us to figure out which traits were controlled by nature  (inherited) and which were controlled by nature and nurture (non-inherited).  Then, we discovered six cool traits about ourselves and our partners (like the V-hand sign, hitchhiker's thumb, and dimples).  We decided that these are probably inherited traits.  Finally, we looked at pictures of different animals and named traits that they inherited from their parents and traits that they did not inherit from their parents.  Next week, we'll be learning even more!

In math this week, Mrs. Adams said we were starting a unit on fractions, but we didn't even start anything with fractions until Friday!  All week, we reviewed what we knew about factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers.  On Friday, we started working with different colored fraction strips to find equivalent fractions.  We noticed that equivalent fractions had denominators (bottom numbers) that were multiples!  It started to make sense why we spent so much time reviewing multiplication concepts!  Next week, we'll do more work with fractions.

In specials this week, we were really busy!  In music, Ms. McComb started and taught us two new songs in chorus.  We also started bringing home recorders this week and we're supposed to practice 5 times a week for 10 minutes each so we can do well with Recorder Karate.  In PE, we played a Happy New Year game!  In Health, we learned about how to prevent diseases.  In Library, we read The Sweetest Fig.  And in art, we created Mexican tin folk art!

Lastly, for our first Mix-it-Up project of 2015, we met with a new partner to create a Google Presentation.  It's just like a PowerPoint presentation, but it's made in Google Drive!  We got to choose a specific topic about either Canada or Mexico to research using non-fiction books and then create slides with photos, captions, tables, headings, and sub-headings to share the facts we learned.  We're excited to finish our presentations next week and share them with each other (and you, our faithful blog readers!)

Check out the newly updated dates and stay tuned for next week's adventures!

Fairy Tale Day, 12/19!

We celebrated "Fairy Tale Day" on December 19th with our Mix-it-Up friends from Room 21.  It was a fun way to wrap up our read aloud book, The Sisters Grimm, and share the collaborative scripts we'd been typing on Google Docs with our mixed up groups!  We performed our scripts (complete with props!) in front of each other, watched a classic fairy tale ("The Sword in the Stone"), and even got to decorate our own crowns.

Check out the video below to hear our thoughts on writing and performing scripts, working collaboratively with Google Docs, and how figurative language helps us make scripts come alive!  Also, check out how many ELA standards we covered, all while having fun on "Fairy Tale Day 2014"!