Research Workshop!

Welcome back from vaca!  This week, we are kicking off a new nonfiction unit of study in both reading and writing.  At home, this means that students will be reading nonfiction books and recording those "nonfiction noticings" on their at-home reading logs.  At school, we are also reading nonfiction like writers as we begin the research stages of our nonfiction writing project - US Regions alphabet books in the style of Michael Shoulders (who we Skyped with earlier this year!)

Check out this Research Workshop document with a list of great resources!  In school, we will be using these resources to close read, paraphrase, and plan our nonfiction alphabet books.  Stay tuned for some amazing nonfiction in both reading and writing!

We HEART writing!

Room 20 STARS!
Thanks for the shades, Aria!!

Just before vacation, we wrapped up our unit on opinion writing!  As "essayists," our job was to persuade and convince our readers to agree with our opinion about a topic.  Our essays about important people were very persuasive and, most importantly, heartfelt!  We also created two poems "from the heart" during a two-day poetry workshop with Room 21 and Miss Farrell.  Check out our publishing party and the amazing compliments we received from our Mix-It-Up friends!  Be on the lookout for more spectacular writing after vacation!

Book Review Fun!

We've been having fun with reading this week in Room 20!  We've been working on forming and supporting our opinions as we read - just like in writing essays!  Book reviews are a way for us to recommend a new reading adventure to our classmates and support our recommendation with reasons to convince others.  Enjoy the work of Sydney, Elizabeth, Katie, Sam, Nate, & Dylan!

Our Week

Check out these talented singers!

What an awesome week! We've enjoyed being together in the New Year and we've learned a lot too!

For reading, we are working on sharing our opinions and backing them up with evidence. We've written opinion essays about characters in our books in Google letters! (You can check them out in our Google Drive. Feel free to respond with your feedback!). Some of us are in book clubs and others are working on creating video book reviews (like Ryann & Ashley's below!)

We've also been doing some close reading of nonfiction! We read articles about zoos to prepare us for our next read aloud book, The One and Only Ivan. Then we had our zoo debate with Miss Farrell's class! Girls debated boys and it was a lively debate about whether or not zoos are a good idea. Debaters used evidence from the articles and counter argued the other team's points. It was a perfect way to get us ready for our next book!

We are working on fractions in math! Stay tuned for some fun how to videos!

In social studies, we've been studying the northeast region! Stay tuned for some slideshows of Northeast landmarks!

Ryann & Ashley Dork Diaries Book Review

Check out Ryann and Ashley's video book review of Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell!  These girls had a mini book club in which they read and discussed the book together and then prepared this book review to encourage others to read it.  Stay tuned for more updates on what Room 20 has been up to in addition to more video book reviews!

December Update!

We finished The Sisters Grimm and celebrated in style!

Here's a sneak preview of some of the exciting things we've been up to here in Room 20!  Our student bloggers will be posting articles later this week with more details, but here are some highlights.

We're writing fiction!
Narrative writing (story writing) can be both real or imagined and we are diving head first into the world of fiction!  Check out some fiction "storyboards" for planning our stories below!

Ashley drew a storyboard of one of our mentor fiction shorts, "Frozen Fever."

We celebrated Fairy Tale Day!
We were so excited and proud to have finished The Sisters Grimm!  Stay tuned for exciting details about our special celebration!

We're dividing and applying what we know!
Long division is the name of the game in math lately!  We're also using what we know about division to solve problems and find prime and composite numbers using divisibility rules.  Quiz on Thursday (12/17), so check out the pink study guide!

Gabi and Brandi did a great job collaborating on some prime & composite brain teasers!

We're on a Great American Road Trip!
Our new social studies unit is going to be so much fun - studying the US regions and Washington, D.C.  Stay tune for some awesome pics and slideshows!  Got any cool postcards or family photos?  Send them in!

Division HOW TO Video!

Hi everybody!  Today, we learned a new strategy for dividing.  It involves some multiplying and some subtracting to find your answer.  I made a short video of me solving an example problem to help you remember how to divide!  Use it to help you with your math homework and remember that homework is PRACTICE.  This is a new skill, so if it was easy and automatic, that would be surprising!  Remember,  you might not feel comfortable with division YET, but that doesn't mean you won't feel better after a few days of practice, which is EXACTLY what we've got in store for us this week (and next!)  Try your best and keep moving forward!