 Hi Families, It’s been another festive week at Barrows! Students had fun solving Week 2 of the teachers’ Hidden Holiday Cheer. Teachers dressed up or displayed festive items. Themes included: Elfie Selfie day, Ugly Sweater Day, and Snowman Day. Dancing Santa on my desk was a big hit. Next week students join in the fun with Spirit Week (see below and the flyer that went home). Also, don’t forget to please send in a wrapped, gently used book for our book swap by Monday. The book swap will actually take place on Friday 12/20. If you are unable to bring in a book, please reach out and I will provide a book and/or wrapping paper so all can participate. Current Safety Star assignments will end on Friday. We will open up Safety Stars again in January with new assignments. Students will have the opportunity to opt in or out at this time. Here is what we’ve been focusing on this week: Math Unit 3: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions This week we matched word problems to fraction multiplication and division expressions. The content of this unit is actually some of the most challenging of the school year. Relating fraction multiplication to fraction division and matching those expressions to word problems is definitely no easy feat! We will take our end-of-unit assessment on Monday and begin whole-number multiplication and division on Tuesday.
English Language Arts Unit 2: Ecosystems: Matter, Energy, and Organisms. This week we explored food chains, pyramids, and webs and learned how they represent energy and food relationships in an ecosystem. Students drew their own food pyramids and wrote a paragraph about a food pyramid in their ecosystem. We also learned more about the key features of our ecosystems, such as temperature, rainfall, availability of water, terrain, soil, sunlight, seasons, and more. Students chose 2-3 features that greatly impact their ecosystem and began exploring how those features force organisms to adapt in order to survive in that ecosystem.
In language skills, I taught students about sentence types (statements, questions, commands, and exclamations) and we practiced writing such sentences using our social studies content (early American colonies). We also practiced turning question sentences and prompts into statements that answer those questions. Social Studies We learned about the growth of the American colonies and the conflict between the Native Americans and the colonists. We also learned about the economic drivers for each region of colonies: northern colonies had luck with fishing and shipbuilding; middle colonies were great for growing grains; southern colonies had the best farming and grew tobacco, cotton, and sugar on large plantations. Science Science From Scientists were back for a super fun activity modeling photosynthesis. Holding diagrams of plants, students ran around the room collecting little cards representing sunlight, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, then ran to another side of the room to trade those for glucose and oxygen, then ran to another part of the room to trade the glucose for stems, leaves, and roots. The professional scientist did an amazing job making this complicated process explicit for students in a very hands-on, fun way! Community Building This week we discussed the purpose of school. Some students have been struggling with “student skills” recently, especially with the excitement of the holidays, and it’s been challenging to keep everyone motivated and focused. I emphasized three words: purpose, focus, and effort, and repeated them as a mantra throughout the week. This week I also tied homework completion to comfy chair privileges. In order to earn a comfy chair privilege, students must regularly complete their homework, do their at-home reading, and get their reading log signed. Homework Other than at-home reading, there will be no math or grammar homework next week –hooray! Please don’t forget to check your child’s reading log in their planner each week, have them total their minutes for the week, and sign your name next to the total by Monday morning. You can stay on top of your child’s homework with my Homework Assignment Log. Important Dates:
Below are some pictures from the week, including the Science From Scientists activity, classroom reading, All School Assembly, and teachers participating in the Hidden Holiday Cheer challenge. Thank you for reading! Have a great weekend!
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