End of Week Update, 5/8

Happy Mothers Day to the ladies who made us who we are!

We had TWO celebrity singers this week!
Way to go, Tyler and Destiny!

What we've been up to!

It has been quite a busy week in Room 20 as we kick off May!  Mrs. Adams returned to JFK this week and we started a lot of new things.  On Monday and Tuesday, we enjoyed visits from our "poet in residence," Ms. Liz!  She is an author and performer of poetry and we are lucky (thanks to the awesome PCC!) to have her come and guide us as we write poetry!  We worked hard on writing acrostic, free verse, and haikus for our moms and grandmas for Mothers Day.  We tried to be specific and personal so that the poems were really special gifts.  We also learned how to perform / recite our poetry and how to consider the poem, the poet, and the people!  In the coming weeks, we'll be writing and reading lots more poetry in preparation for our Poetry Coffeehouse on June 12th!  We're looking forward to Rock Poetry day next Friday 5/15!

In reading, we started a unit on Greek mythology.  We've done lots of mix-it-up activities with Room 21, including reading all about how the Greek gods came to power, starting our new read aloud book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and writing our own narratives based on the very humorous chapter titles in The Lightning Thief.  We wrote narratives entitled "A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers," "We Take a Zebra to Vegas," and "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom" (just to name a few!)  Next week we're excited to read more of this suspenseful book and to do more mix-it-up activities with Miss Farrell's class!

In math, we studied elapsed time and learned how to find elapsed time in minutes and hours.  We also made and interpreted three types of graphs - line plots, bar graphs, and picture graphs.  Check out the fun line plots we created based on funny measurements like length of hair, length of index fingers, and more!  Next week, it's onto geometry!

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week and I felt like royalty!  From the homemade cards to the very generous gifts to the amazing contributions that all the JFK families made through the PCC events, I was once again floored at the show of support and gratitude shown to me and my colleagues.  Thank you ALL!  Much love, Mrs. Adams xoxoxo

What's coming up:

• This Tuesday (5/12) is our EOY (end-of-year) PARCC test for English Language Arts.  Your child will be testing in the morning and should come to school on time and full from a good breakfast!  Thanks in advance!
• This Friday (5/15) is Rock Poetry day.  A handwritten copy of song lyrics, completed questions, and a CD (or shared YouTube link) of the song are required for Friday.  Please have your child ask me for help if they have any questions!
• A bright orange letter went home with some important dates for the end of the school year.  They are updated on the side of our blog, too!  Please let me know if you have any questions about these fun events!
• A bright blue letter went home with information about a 4th grade tradition - Tie Dye Tuesday!  This is a fun activity and students will come home with a one-of-a-kind T shirt to wear to some end of year events.  Please send in a white cotton T shirt with a hanger by 5/21 so we can tie the shirts before the Memorial Day weekend and dye them upon our return!