Update for November 22, 2013

What a busy couple of weeks we've had in room 14!
We have busy reading a wonderful book, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.  I am enjoying reading the responses, connections, questions, etc that students are writing in their response journals as they are reading.  Many students are really connecting to the main character, Shirley, since they too have been the new kid at school and/or have moved to the United States from another country. 
In writing we have begun a unit on writing opinion pieces.  They have turned in their first one based on a comparison of two versions of the story of the Three Little Pigs and Big Bad Wolf.  I hope to finish reading them over the break and will have them ready for the next Friday Folder.  We are now in the process of planning their next opinion piece, and this time it will be a mutliparagraph essay (their first of many this year). 
After wrapping up unit 3 in math this week, we spent the rest of the week working on our Problem of the Month, Digging Dinosaurs.  After solving the various levels of the problem, students worked together in collaborative groups to create a multimedia presentation on the iPads that explained their solutions and why they made sense.  I am working on figuring out how to link these presentations to this page so you can check them out as well since they all did such a great job on them!  Today we had our monthly math stations and the class had a great time working through the three different math stations.  Their favorite one was using the iPads and a QR code reading app. Thank you again to the wonderful parents who helped us out today during our math stations!
We also finished up unit 1 in Social Studies this week and will begin our second unit after the Thanksgiving Break which will focus on Early People in California.  Lastly in science I introduced our next unit, Electricity and Magnetism by asking the class to tell me what they think they already know about the topic and what they would like to learn.  We will start this fun and very hands on unit as soon as we return from the break as well. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!

Update for November 8, 2013

Good afternoon,
It's hard to believe it, but we have officially made it through the first trimester of the school year.  Over the next two weeks I will be finishing up my assessments of student work so far this year and completing report cards which will be sent home on Friday, November 22nd.  I wanted to remind you that there is no school this upcoming Monday and therefore we will not be having spelling next week.  Also I will be out of the classroom on Tuesday (11/12), but I will be on campus working on report cards and assessments.  Mary Morgan will once again be here subbing for me.  Next week we should be wrapping up the current chapter and unit in math.  I plan to give the unit 3 test on Monday, 11/18.  This week we began reading a wonderful book, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.  This book is a great opportunity for our students to make connections between their experiences and that of the main character.  We will be doing most of the reading and follow up activities in class but students will be required to do some reading and responding at home as well.  We also began working on a new writing assignment this week.  Students are writing an opinion piece based on two different versions of the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.  I am anxious to see which side is going to win!

One last note before we can all go and enjoy our weekend....it has come to my attention that several students from room 14 are once again showing up to school way to early in the morning.  Students are not to arrive on campus until 8:15am.  This is a safety issue as we don't have teachers on yard duty until that time.  Also please be sure that your child is picked up promptly at 3:00pm after school.  Students are not allowed to "hang out" or play on the playground after school unsupervised.  If you have any questions about this or anything, please feel free to come see me.

Thank you, 
Mrs. Barkve