Information for the Next Week

As we wind down towards the end of 2012 and the beginning of Christmas break, I wanted to send some pieces of information your way.


  • Passing of the Cans is this Friday, December 14. We have done a great job of bringing in items for Passing of the Cans. So far, this group has brought in more items than any other class I have been a part of. On Monday or Tuesday, we will begin taking a count of how many items we have before we begin looking at nutritional labels, servings, and so on.
  • On Wednesday and Thursday we are participating in two virtual field trips. Wednesday's virtual field trip is about the Mars rover. That is all the information I have at the moment since I'm waiting to hear back with more details. Thursday's virtual field trip is our monthly field trip involving Colonial Williamsburg. This VFT is called "Colonial Idol" and focuses on the music and dance of the colonial period. This includes the song and dance of Native Americans, the wealthy, slaves, patriots, and the British. Everyone in class in very excited about this VFT.
  • In reading, we will continue reading William Steig. Our conversations and discussions around Steig have been marvelous. Steig provides great examples, blatant examples, of various literary elements. Students have been talking about the usage of time (Steig uses the seasons as a way of passing time) and tension (there always seem to be some problem in his books). 
    • By studying Steig and studying these literary elements, we hope to include these elements into our own writing. 
  • In writing, we have been looking at grammar as way of varying our sentence structure. For instance, we have looked at what are called absolutes - two word phrases which include a noun and -ing verb such as "heart pounding." Using absolutes changes sentences such as "I ran to the store." into "Heart pounding, I ran to the store."
  • In social studies, we are finishing up our study of the explorers before moving, in January, to colonial America. Most likely we will have some kind of test on the explorers.
  • In math, we will be finishing up multiplication. So far we have been studying 1 and 2 digit multiplication, lattice multiplication, Napier's rods (another version of lattice multiplication), and Russian peasant multiplication. Before we end multiplication, we will study how the Egyptians used multiplication. On Friday, we will have some kind of test on all these versions of multiplication.
  • In science, we will begin discussing weather data collection and how to read the weather graphs which track CFI's weather station's weather data (hope that made sense). Here is a link to CFI's weather station: CFI Weather Station.
As always thanks for all your help and support. Have a wonderful week!

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