The days keep zipping by me! I can't believe how fast they go.

This morning, we spent time in the Lykes Center, going over where everyone will stand on the risers. When we came back, we reviewed the Caught Ya, had snack and Spanish class.

During math, we reviewed symmetry. You can see an instructional video here and here. Try sorting symmetrical figures here, too. After this review, we tried to guess what a snowflake would look like, just by seeing what one section of the pattern was. If you try page 1 of this document, before you try page 2, you can try to anticipate what the snowflake will look like before you cut it out.

This webpage was lots of fun to try! Click the image below



We also shared a glog or two and will share more tomorrow.

This afternoon, we reviewed the rubric for the Quadrarama. That was the assigned seatwork for the day. In small groups, we continued to develop our stories on the animals with surprising powers.


Before we headed to music rehearsal, we discussed out next science experiment. I placed three lima beans in a paper cup and covered them with plaster. After the plaster hardened, I peeled off the cup and set the "plaster disk" on a tray lined with water. Do you think the lima bean will sprout? I'm not so sure it will...after all, there is only water and plaster surrounding it. Will the water even get through the plaster to the beans? Tomorrow morning we'll make predictions and see what happens over the course of the week.

We hope you are feeling better and will be able to return to school tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

Today has been lots of fun! Aside from the traditional spelling and Wordly Wise tests, we had a wonderful visit from Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Schlact, and Dr. Miller. They shared with us the history of Hanukkah as well as delicious potato latkes, applesauce, gelt, and doughnuts. We loved hearing the story of The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket.


The children LOVED it!!! Mrs. Schlact does a fantastic impression of a screaming latke!

We held rotation this afternoon. Children who worked with me in small groups started writing a story. Remember Tuesday by David Wiesner? The book about flying frogs? Each child chose an animal and a super power before jotting down a few ideas for their stories. Here is the form they used. Those who completed the form were able to begin typing their stories.

Seatwork included work on the Quadrarama for the Judy Blume books. The students are having SO much fun with these. I am anxious for you to get back so you can get started on one yourself.

Today we also had keyboarding practice, PE, Spanish, and Winter Concert rehearsal. Though it was a full day, it went by quickly. We miss you and hope to see you Monday!

This morning, after reviewing the Caught Ya, we entered in the sunrise and sunset time for today in our math journals (page 27). The sunrise was at 7:09 AM and the sunset at 5:33 PM. Try to calculate the number of daylight hours we will have.
We also calculated the difference between the Nation's High and Low on page 43 of the math journal.
High: Miami, FL 86 degrees
Low: Bettles, AK -46 degrees

We reviewed nouns and then I explained what pronouns are. Please see below:

You can play a fun pronoun treasure hunt game here.

I hear in Mr. Shane's class your team tried to destroy a building! You'll have to ask the children about that one... :)

In math, I gave an assessment that went over multiplication and reviewed concepts you have learned previously. You can take that when you return. The challenge problem was incredibly fun!

This afternoon, we will have rotation. Students will share their observations about the Judy Blume book they are reading and/or start planning for their newest story...you might remember that I read Tuesday, which I read aloud yesterday.

During seatwork, the children will start making their quadrarama for Judy Blume! I'll save the instructions for you so you can get started next week.

We will end the day with Mrs. Gregory, rehearsing for the Winter Concert.

We miss you and hope to see you Monday!
Mrs. Neal

Today we spent some time scoring another student's story. You can find that story here. We used the Organization rubric to decide:

* Was the story easy to follow—like having a road map? Nothing is out of place.
* Did everything connect? Was it is easy to see how one thing connected to another?
* Was there a lead that caught your attention—one that makes you want to read on?
* Was there a strong ending—making the paper unforgettable?

Once we scored it, I taught the children how to be a good peer editor. We wrote down three things:

*- One thing you really liked about the story.
(I say this story was organized. It was easy to see how one thing connects to another.)

:) - One suggestion. Describe one thing you believe the student should do to improve his score on the Organization rubric.
(I said we needed to work on making the beginning a bit more interesting.)

?- One question. Here we wrote down a question we had about the piece. We could ask the author to clarify a part of the story that didn't make sense.

In math, we talked about how to use a map scale. We looked at several maps online and examined the map scale at the bottom. If you look at page 95 in your math journal, you'll see a map of the United States with a map scale in the bottom left hand corner. If you measure the line segment, you'll see that one inch equals 300 miles on this map. We used rulers to measure the distance between certain locations (page 96) and calculated how many miles there were between them as well.

We talked about the phrase "as the crow flies". It means that the distance between two locations normally includes lots of turns...and there really isn't a straight road between them. However, if we could fly between locations, we could make a straight line..."as the crow flies." That would be the shortest distance.

We also completed the math boxes on page 97 of the math journal as well.

I shared a brief power point...mostly...with the class today. Please see it below. We will be talking about Author's Purpose later this week.

During rotation today, we discussed our Judy Blume book and continued to finish up assignments (glogs, proper nouns worksheets, Fudge questions).

Tomorrow, we will be starting a new story and viewing Timucua glogs! Yahoo!!!!

This year’s Winter Concert will be on Wednesday, December 16, at 7 pm.

This year all students are to wear bright, solid colored long or short sleeved polo shirts, solid navy blue or black pants (no midriff showing; also, no jeans, gauchos, capris, leggings, or shorts,) and their regular uniform shoes. Please, NO earrings, bracelets, or other jewelry. Those wearing special costumes will be notified by the Fine Arts Teachers.

All children should arrive by 6:15 p.m. and meet their teachers in their classrooms. You will be able to pick your child up in their classroom, after the performance.

Please share our holiday fun and join us on Wednesday, December 16, for “Pictures of December,” the Winter Concert, at 7:00 p.m. in the Lykes Center for the Arts.

Thanks for your support,

Fine Art Teachers

LYNNE JONELL

Saturday, December 12, 1:30 p.m.

LYNNE JONELL will be here signing her books including EMMY AND THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING RAT, one of this year's favorite Sunshine State Reader Award winners, as well as its sequel, EMMY AND THE HOME FOR TROUBLED GIRLS at Inkwood Books in Tampa. Her newest book is THE SECRET OF ZOOM, a wonderful mystery with laboratories, scientists, orphans, and a mansion in a forest with a sign that reads "Trespassers Will Be Boiled". What more could you want? Call ahead to reserve books.