FIELD TRIP!!!

This week our essential question was " How do people get along?".  We read some really awesome stories both fiction and non-fiction about ways in which people need to cooperate.  This is a perfect topic for this time of year when we often forget the best ways to work with each other.  Today we even read a piece about bullying which lead to a wonderful discussion about how to deal with bullies.  This topic is great to revisit throughout the school year.

We worked a lot this week with using the pronouns I, me and us.  Students had to correct sentences using the proper pronouns.  Our spelling words are "oi,oy" words.  Since we had the field trip yesterday we will not take our weekly unit assessment until Tuesday.  The spelling test will also be on Tuesday.

Next week we have some end of the school year business to deal with in language arts.  We'll be giving the students assessments that are required by our curriculum office.  We will take most of the week off from wonders.

In math we will review from now until June.  We will have and end of the year assessment in a few weeks.  Along with review Mrs. Miller is also teaching us how to play chess.  It is a wonderful higher level think game to challenge the students.  They really enjoy this.

In Social Studies this week we learned about what community leaders do.  They make laws, pay for services and decide on building something new.  The students had to work together with a partner to make a poster that might be taken to a council meeting.  There poster had to do with fixing a playground that was unsafe.  They showed on their posters how they would ask community leaders for help.

We have continued to read "Charlotte's Web".  We met Charlotte's for the first time this week and learned a lot about spiders and how they survive.  The students really seem to enjoy this book.

The biggest event this week was our field trip to The Academy of Natural Sciences.  It was a fun and successful trip.  We got to see butterflies up close and some even landed on us, it was so cool!!  The students were given the opportunity to experience what a dinosaur dig would be like.  They used tools and wore goggles to try to uncover dinosaur bones.  We met some interesting creatures at the interactive exhibit "The outside In".  The student were able to pet a domestic rat named Mary.  We learned that these rats only live about 2 years.  The students also petted a cockroach and a turtle.  I'll post some pictures from the trip.  A hug THANK YOU to my chaperones.  I am always surprised at how amazing they parents of Woodbury Heights are.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Anne Taylor