February Break is Here!

 Hello again!  We had another great week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we worked on using the RADD strategy (Restate, Answer, Detail, Detail) to answer short answer comprehension questions.  We started by reviewing the parts of RADD, reading a short passage about lions and completing a RADD response together.  Then, students worked on a RADD response about a text about how dogs are helpful to people.  After that, we read one more passage called Meerkat Chat about how meerkats communicate and students did another RADD response.  After each of these tasks, we looked at examples and discussed how to choose strong, specific details to support our answers.  We also continued to work on opinion writing this week.  Students wrote a paragraph about whether or not fourth graders should have homework. (A VERY passionate subject, I found!)  While working on these paragraphs, we worked on using transition words to make our writing flow more smoothly as well as how to use conjunctions to edit run-on sentences.

In Social Studies this week, students used what they have learned about longhouses to make paper models of longhouses.  While doing this we reviewed what parts of the tree were used for different parts of the longhouse.  After break, we will start our next unit on Early European Explorers who came to New York!

In Science this week, students completed an edPuzzle activity with a video about motion and collisions.

We also celebrated Valentine´s Day this week!  We had our first House Challenge where the four houses competed against each other for points!  There are lots of photos of this below!

I hope everyone has a wonderful break!  As always, please reach out to me with any questions!

Here are some photos from Valentine´s Day:

The Sorting Hat Has Spoken!

 Hello again!  We had an exciting week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week students did some review of comparing and contrasting by reading two articles, one about Roblox and one about Candyland.  They compared and contrasted information about the two games from both articles including how they are played, their popularity, and how they helped kids during difficult times.  Did you know that Candyland was played by children in the Polio wards in the 40s??  We also read an interesting article about a strange disaster that is not very well known: The Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.  We read the story of Anthony diStasio, an Italian immigrant who lived in Boston´s North End neighborhood and barely survived the molasses flood.  We used this article to continue practicing making inferences and backing up inferences with strong details from the text.

In Social Studies this week students watched a video from the New York State Museum where they were able to see the model longhouse and some Haudenosaunee artifacts that they have there.  They also read about how the Iroquois used natural resources to meet their needs.

In Science this week students did an activity to determine whether the texture of a surface affects the motion of a sliding object.

We ended this week with our Sorting Ceremony!! Our class was sorted into four houses and will start competing in House Challenges to earn House Points next week!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  As always, please reach out with any questions.

A few reminders:

• Our Valentine´s Day Party will be on Tuesday afternoon.  Please send in Valentines and any party supplies that you signed up for on that day.
• Friday, February 17th is Hoodie Day and Popcorn Day at lunch.

Here are some photos from our Sorting Ceremony:

Brrr!

 Hello again!  We had another fabulous week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we started to work on opinion writing.  We started small by going through the writing process for an opinion paragraph about what animal makes the best pet.  Students brainstormed, planned their paragraph, wrote a rough draft, revised and edited and wrote a final draft all in their writing journals.  We focused on writing strong topic and concluding sentences, as well as backing up our reasons with examples and details to make our paragraphs stronger.  We will continue to work on opinion writing for the next several weeks!  We also continued to work on making inferences this week.   We read the book Two Bad Ants and practiced using clues from the text to infer where the ants in the story were.  Then, we read short paragraphs and practiced answering inference questions together and identifying the clues that helped us to make the inference.  We also read a fascinating article called Escape from Alcatraz about Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers escape from the famous prison.  We were all fascinated by this mysterious true story!  We used this article to practice finding strong details to support inferences.

In Social Studies this week we continued our unit on the Haudenosaunee.   We learned more about longhouses this week.  We looked at drawings of Haudenosaunee villages and worked on drawing conclusions about their lives from evidence in the pictures.  Then, students read about how longhouses were made and did a sequencing activity where they had to put the steps of building a longhouse in order.

In Science this week students finished creating their Twist-o-matic experiment where they explored the release of energy in their model amusement park rides.

As you can see we were very busy this week!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

A few reminders:

• Tuesday, February 7th is a half day for students.  They will be dismissed at noon.
• Our Valentine´s Party will be on Tuesday, February 14th.  A sign up for items for the party has been sent out.  I will send home a class list on Monday for students who would like to make valentines.