Week in Review 3/10 - 3/15

1. We all got a new bookclub for reading workshop. We are studying historical fiction. There are different groups studying different genres. In our class, some groups are studying Civil War, WWII, Immigration, and American Revolution. We created a consitution and chose a name for our book club. The constitution is what the group will do if certain situations arise and the rules of the club. In these book clubs we are choosing just right books from our genre bins. We are also going to help find multiple copies of books we may want to read. We are reading and jotting about the setting--what it looks like and feels like, and noticing when signs of trouble arise! Today, we looked over our logs and used calculators to set a goal for how many pages we should read each day within our club. Most of the groups found out how many pages they will read and the range is 27-30 pages. We are starting our chapter books on Monday, and we can't wait! AA, HP, RB, GS, MA, CO
2. In writing workshop we started a new unit in Poetry! We are looking at ordinary things and objects through poet's eyes trying to describe them in a fresh new way! We studied another poet and noticed that they described the pencil sharpener as a bee! We also wrote a whole class poem about the Smartboard pen! We thought about why authors choose to write poetry and what poetry is! We wrote our poems by first making a list of interesting objects in a different way and then putting them altogether to make a poem. One way to write a poem is to look at ordinary things and compare it to something. This is Miss Sproch's favorite writing unit! Today, we are going to write limericks for St. Patrick's day! FH, HP, CV, GS, RB, CO. MA
3. We have been working on the California Jumping Contest. All of our friends, MT the bullfrog, Frog, Toad, Ribbit, and Croak, have decided to have a jumping contest. They have two tracks, one is 42 feet and one is 28 feet. The frogs need to figure out how many benches they will need to fill both sides of each tracks. The bench lenghts were 6 ft and 8 ft.  Miss Sproch took a risk today and we were paired with new partners who were doing similiar work. We are using a double open number line to help us think with and prove our thinking. Earlier in the week, we met Ribbit and Croak and it was a trick question! It was important to read carefully and show our thinking in a clear manner. We all learned that revision is important and we learn from making mistakes! Mathematicians are constantly making revisions! There is a bulletin board filled with work from mathematicians who made important revisions to their proofs! We are expecting another frog problem in the near future!  FD, AA. FH. GS, HP, MA
4.   Mrs. Chandler came in for mystery reader and she read the funniest books ever! She read the "Dumb Bunnies" series. Thank you, Mrs. Chandler! KC
5. WE finished all of our CMT's... except for a few makeups! Hoooray! CO
6. In science, we are going to Mrs. Rongoe'c class and we are learning about forces and motion. We make our own cars and got to see if they would travel 1 meter. We also got to make our own blueprints of our cars. They weren't blue though, they were white! In science, Mrs. Rongoe said we will be taking our cars apart and will have a new building challenge where we have to follow a blueprint, not ours, and make a car.  HP, GS
7. We took a break from word study because of the CMT's, but will be starting next again next week!  RB
8.  Band students had their first before school band rehearsal today. AA
9. We had 5 friends out today and had a small class. I hope everyone is muy bien by Monday or at least mas o menos! CV, MA, HP
10. We have not read Because of Mr. Terupt in a while so we have no new update. We hope to get back to it soon! FH
11. We are continuing our travels through the midwest, looking for topics that we are interested to further study. Many of us are interested in studyng spelunking... do you know what that is? Ask us! MA, GS