Happy New Year!
This first week back after our vacation seems to have flown by! We got right to work when we returned and have been busy, busy, busy.
Before vacation we started a class novel called 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. Students have been reading in class and responding to questions and participating in activities based around the novel. It is a great book! We are about half way through it and I anticipate being finished with it by the end of the month.
We are almost finished with our second published writing piece, a realistic fiction story! Students have been typing these stories, which is good practice for their typing skills. We have also been learning how to type using the program, TypingWeb online. I have already seen much better typing skills within our class.
This week we started our Science Unit on The Water Cycle. And yes, it's true what was said about dinosaurs. :) There is the same amount of water on Earth right now as there was when the earth was first formed. The water running through your faucet could contain molecules that we once drank by the dinosaurs!
Our next writing unit will be called "Through the Lens of History". I am very excited to start this unit. Students will be creating a report on Colonization within this unit. In order to prepare for it, I had to start our 13 Colonies a little sooner that I had originally planned. So, this week we started a colonization simulation. Students have been divided into "colonies" and will be traveling from their home countries to the New World over the next few weeks. They will learn why colonists came from Europe to the New World, they will set sail and they will start a colony in the New World. They will also learn about the importance of maps and geography.
Important Dates to remember:
1/20 - No School, Martin Luther King, Jr.
1/23 - Dental Clinic at MGWS
1/23 - MGWS Pinkham Notch Parent Information Meeting 6:30pm in Cafe
1/27 - 1/29 - Aladdin, Jr. Auditions *Our Class is 1/29
2/2 - Walk to School Day
