Week of March 31-April 4th

Welcome back from spring break! It was definitely hard to get back in the groove this morning, but we'll get there! We are officially in the last grading period - this year has flown by! Can't believe the kiddos are almost 5th graders. With that being said, we still have A LOT to do before the last 9 weeks are up!

OAA reading and math tests will be the last week of April. Please check the calendar page for dates. It is important that the students are focused and ready to take the assessments. We will be reviewing steadily during the next few weeks AND learning new content that still needs covered.

This week we are working on daily grammar. We will be learning the parts of speech- boot camp style! This will be fun and educational as students divide into teams and compete to earn medals by learning the parts of speech. We started our poetry unit today and will continue it for the next 2 weeks. We will be looking at what a poem is and understanding poetry. We will also be learning types of poetic devices; personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, simile,and metaphor.

Monthly minutes for March is due Tuesday and the extra credit book report is due this Thursday.

In science we are learning about the rock cycle and will be creating rock CD's. We will also take a look at fossils and how they help us identify living things from the past.

• Grade cards will go home this week

Have a sunny week (FINALLY!!)

Week of March 17th-21st

We had some sneaky leprechauns in our room today! They came just in time to practice prepositional phrases!
This week we are focusing on prepositions and reviewing other essential grammar skills. Our daily grammar was sent home today and will be due on Thursday. I would like the students to work independently and this will take place of our weekly grammar quiz.
We are finishing up learning about text structures and the Iditarod. We are writing compare/contrast paragraphs about our mushers that we followed. We will be doing small group activities to determine the text structure of an informational text.
Students were also given an opportunity to earn extra credit during the 4th 9 weeks by completing a nonfiction book report and AR test. They will be given a book about Sled Dogs to read and complete the assignment by Thursday, April 3rd.
We will begin our poetry unit after spring break:)
In science we are learning about types of rocks and will be studying fossils.

Just a reminder:

• there is NO early release this Thursday
• Market Day is Tuesday
• Spring break is March 21-March 30th

Enjoy the week!

Week of March 10-14th

I am still sweeping up sand from our erosion lab on Friday! Although it was messy, the kids had a great experience and there was a lot of conversation about the speed of erosion on different landforms. Check out the pics...

This week we will be focusing on finishing up our iditarod unit. The kids are having fun following their selected musher and our classroom musher, Matt Failor. We have researched different aspects of the iditarod and have been writing paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. This week we will read about the first woman champion of the iditarod and learn how to write a nonfiction summary. We will also compare and contrast mushers and watch the Stone Fox movie. By the end of the week we will start a poetry unit that will last until spring break.
We are still learning basic roots and affixes. We will have a spelling review this week and the test will be part of our grammar quiz on Friday.
In science we are taking a quiz over erosion on the computer using google forms. You can view the test under Science by clicking on the resources tab. We will be learning about rocks and fossils later this week and next.
Please remember:

• NO early release on March 20th.
• Market Day is March 18th. Students may bring in no ore than $5 to purchase goods/services from the 6th graders.
• Spring break is March 21-30th.

Have a happy week!

Week of March 3-7th

Finally! I have finally had the time to sit and write about what's going on in the classroom. It has been a busy week....and it's only Tuesday!

We are excitedly watching Matt Failor in the Iditarod! Matt is from Mansfield and this is his third Iditarod. The students are researching another musher and will learn all things Iditarod this week. We will work on main idea and summarizing nonfiction as well. After the iditarod, we will be watching the movie "Stone Fox" and comparing it to the book that we have just finished.

In science we are finishing up our Earth Processes unit and will be doing an erosion lab Thursday and Friday.

Just a reminder of upcoming events:

• There is NO early release on Thursday, March 20th. Students will release at the regular time.
• Market Day for 6th graders is March 18th. The 4th graders will be visiting the 6th graders' booths to purchase goods/services from 9-9:30. Please feel free to send in $ with your child that day, (no more than $5.00) if they would like to make some purchases.
• Spring break is March 21-30th.

Enjoy your week!

Students working on a Stone Fox webquest

Experimenting with chemical weathering