STEM, Similes, and creative Scripting

Miss. Lindsay here! I am amazed at how quickly February has flown by. Spring fever has already hit with many 60 degree days and next Wednesday will mark the beginning of March.

Science
You may have noticed your kiddos tucking bubble wrap, cardboard, styrofoam cups, and other assorted "insulators" into their backpacks this week. That is because we have been working on a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics... We are focused on science!) project to create the best insulator for 1 cup of boiling water in a paper cup. All of the students have worked collaboratively to make one another's projects the very best! After our "insulating champs" have been crowned, we will be moving on to new and exciting concepts next week.

Language Arts
Word Study
This week's list consists of words that are all synonyms of laugh and cry. The students will be challenged to integrate what we have learned in reading and create sentences with the words using similes. Additionally, there will be a focus on spelling, synonyms/antonyms, and creating their own definitions of the words! The words for the week can be found here.

Reading
As we continue our poetry unit, we have begun to focus on figurative language -- similes, metaphors, alliteration, personification, idioms, onomatopoeias, and hyperboles. Poets use figurative language to make their poems more interesting. As we learn figurative language, we have begun to identify where poets have stuck it into their writing. It is quite fun! Next week, we will work on mood, theme, and tone within poetry as well as spend time on PARCC test preparation.

Writing
The kids have used what they learned in reading to write poems in writing. So far, we have written simile, metaphor, and alliteration poems with onomatopoeia poems on the way! Poetry's creative mean allows the students to think differently about what they want to write and how they want to write it. For example, students chose colors to write about for their metaphor poems and applied many emotions to the color they chose.

Next week we will continue to write creatively through the poetry process!

Math
Last week the students flexed their brain muscles and breezed through Chapter 8! We have begun Chapter 9 (converting fractions to decimals), the last chapter involving fractions! This chapter only involves converting fractions with a base of 10 (1/10, 1/100, 1/100, etc.). Check out this Khan Academy video for a nice strategy on how to convert fractions to decimals!

Upcoming Events
Our calendar is very exciting next week! Take a look:

• 3/2/17: Pajama Day (to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday)
• 3/2/17: EARLY DISMISSAL @ 12:30PM
• 3/2/17: OPEN HOUSE! @ 6PM-7:30PM
• 3/3/17: No School -- Teacher's Institute Day
• 3/17/17: End of 3rd Quarter

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me at mllindsay@eiu.edu or Mr. Holmes.

Miss. Lindsay takes over!

As we begin February, I (Miss. Lindsay) will be taking over the blog! Mr. Holmes and I have been diligently working together to plan each lesson I teach and soon I will have the responsibility of teaching the students all day! How exciting!

Science
We have happily transitioned into science for the third marking period! Our first chapter for the quarter is on heat, and we will be doing numerous exciting and hands-on experiments the next couple of weeks on how thermal energy generates heat.

So far, the students have had fun participating in 2 discovery mini-labs with many more on the way! One lab allowed students to use the "thermal camera" on iPads to view the classroom from a new point-of-view all while inferring why certain locations were hot or cold. I can't wait to learn more with the students!

Language Arts
Word Study
This week's list consists on words using the re-, dis-, and un- prefixes.  The focus will be on spelling, synonyms/antonyms, and using the words correctly in sentences according to their parts of speech. The words for the week can be found here.

Reading
We have begun our Poetry Unit! I am delighted to share such a creative unit with the students. This week we will be focusing on learning the different types of poems: couplets, quintets, haikus, Cinquains, limericks, alliterations, concrete/shape poems, and autobiographies. Here is the link to the Google Slides where you can check out the different type of poems we are working on. Next week we will focus on revealing themes in poetry. This involves learning figurative language vocabulary and identifying how figurative language affects how we read poems. We will also focus on learning figurative language vocabulary and close reading iconic poems.

I began reading a new book with the students -- The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson! This 1994 classic is narrated by fourth grader Beth Bradley, whose life is plagued by the infamous Herdman family: Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Glady. But the Herdman clan isn't necessarily known for the good things they do -- ask your child to hear what they did to Howard McCluskey's bald head!

Writing
Last week we finished writing narratives; telling a story in another character's point-of-view.  Using the story Zane and the Hurricane, student's retold a scene from Bandy's point of view.  In case you are wondering...Bandy is the main character's dog!  This writing was lots of fun!

This and next week we will focus on poetry written by famous African American poets during the the Harlem Renaissance.  This week we are analyzing Langston Hughes poetry.

Math
We are finishing up Chapter 7! Oh, the memories of all we have learned... This week has challenged us all with Subtracting Mixed Numbers with Regrouping (YouTube video that demonstrates my preferred method of solving these types of problems). Students have pushed passed sicknesses and difficult lessons to prepare themselves for the assessment this Friday (2/10). Please see Mr. Holmes's previous blog posts for resource videos on previous lessons.

I am looking forward to having a wonderful week with the students! If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me at mllindsay@eiu.edu or Mr. Holmes.