1 week until winter break

It's an exciting week for us.  We have winter carnival fun planned for the entire week along with our usual routine.  On Monday and Tuesday, we'll be sharing our 5th bookshares of the year.  We won't have time for our spelling this week, but we will focus on our parts of speech grammar lessons in between the bookshares. 

In social studies, we'll watch The Clash of Titans!  This goes along with our studies of the Persian Wars. 

On Friday, we will spend the day working in teams and participating in winter carnival activities the entire day.  Some of the activities include:  lip sync, murals, snowshoe obstacle course, snow sculpture, and rock wall climbing!  Can't wait to have a great time with the kids. 

February 10, 2013

It's been a very busy few weeks in our classroom.  The students have just finished up their literature circle novels and have completed their final projects.  During the next two weeks, we will focus on grammar and the 8 parts of speech.  Each day will be dedicated to one of the parts of speech.  We will watch an old fashioned "School House Rock" video to kick off the day and then review the grammar rules for that topic.  Students will create a "Parts of Speech" rule book for each topice that they will use as a study guide for their final test. 

In social studies, we are finishing our unit on Ancient Greece.  This week, we will look at the Trojan War and how it impacted history.  Some of the kids have been talking about Greek myths and doing a little research on gods and goddesses. It's a lot of fun discovering the stories with them.  Later in the week, they will write their own original myths to explain a random act of nature. 

Week of January 27th

Brrrr.... it's cold up here in New England!!  Our classroom is heating up with some great projects!!  Our language arts classes have been busy creating propaganda advertisements.  The kids have had a great time creating commercials for their "products".  I'll try to post a few videos after they have presented next week. 

We're still studying Ancient Greece.  This week will focus on Sparta vs. Athens.  We're talking about how our American democracy was modeled from Athen's democracy.  Students will be doing  a lot of reading about the two societies and  creating crossword puzzles of vocabulary terms and real estate guides for living in ancient Greece. 

Half way through January already!

This week marks the end of the second quarter for us.  It's a very short week instructionally with the holiday on Monday and ski day on Friday, but we'll make the most of it!  In language arts this week, the students are working on propaganda presentations.  They are looking at different media messages and analyzing the ways propaganda is being  used.  Many of the students have asked if they can make their own messages.  I think we'll save that for next week!  This is always a fun unit. 

In social studies, we are still working on Ancient Greece.  The kids have been watching videos and reading about the Gods and Goddesses.  For the students who don't ski, they are working on turning ancient myths into board games and are creating life size posters of their favorite God/Goddess.  We've been having a lot of fun with it! 

Have a great week!

Student made video

Here is a You Tube link to a student made video tribute to the heroes of World War II and the book he read We Were Heroes by Walter Dean Myers.  Hope you enjoy it! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugcsxBBgpc8

Week of January 14, 2013

This week we will see our 4th bookshares!  The students will also be taking their mid-year benchmark test to see how they are doing with language and reading skills.  We'll end the week with a mini-unit on propaganda in advertising and the media.  Students will learn about the different types of propaganda and how each are used.  They will then analyze common media messages and identify the types of propaganda being used.

In social studies, the students will be comparing and contrasting the ancient civilizations of Sparta and Athens.  After reading about the two cities, student will create a Venn Diagram and write a compare/contrast essay about the two. 

January 8, 2013

Happy New Year Everyone!!!  We've started out the year on a great note.  The students have gotten right back into the swing of things.  This week in language arts we're working with our daily oral language and spelling words that have double consonants.  The students have written rough drafts of a compare/contrast essay for a topic of their choice.  We'll follow the writing process and take these drafts through the editing/revising process before we type our final drafts. 

In reading, the kids have gotten right back into their literature circles.  Most groups are halfway through their novels at this point!!  I'm excited to hear their thoughts and reflections as they read and discuss their stories.

Social studies has us traveling back in time to Ancient Greece.  We have just learned about the Dark Age from 1150 B.C. to 750 B.C. We will continue to read about this time period and discuss how the Greeks were responsible for developing the early democratic system and the first minted money.