New Netherland

Hello again!  We had another busy week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we continued to read our class novel Save Me a Seat.  We continued to focus on characters while reading this book.  After finishing the Monday section of the novel, students chose one of the main characters and wrote about how they would rate their first day of fifth grade, using examples from the text to back up their answers.  We  also reviewed character traits and worked on identifying traits that describe one of the characters in the book and backing our trait up with details from the text, specifically things that the character says, does or thinks.  We have also been having some awesome discussions about how character perspective affects how we understand different events in the story!  We also focused on theme this week.  We started by defining theme and looking at examples of different themes in movies.  Then we watched two pixar shorts and identified the problem, how the characters changed and what the characters learned and used this information to help us come up with themes for the stories.  We also practiced this skill with a few picture books this week including one of my favorites, Mr. Peabody´s Apples by Madonna.  (Yes, Madonna!!)

In Social Studies this week students chose one of Henry Hudson´s four voyages and created an Instagram for him as if he had his cell phone with him on the voyage!  They made posts about who he was sailing for, what he was looking for, where he went and why he turned back (or didn´t!).  Then, students acted out a skit about how the Dutch West India Company settled in New Netherland after Hudson claimed it for the Dutch.  There are some photos of our fabulous actors and audience below!

In Science this week, students added to their roller coaster models and used them to explore how hills affect energy.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!  As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions!

A few reminders:

• Wednesday, March 15th is a half day for students.  They will be dismissed at noon.
• Forms for the STEM Fair came home this week.  Students who want to participate need to return the completed form by March 17th.