Water, Water, Everywhere.

Shakespeare-  The kids were in stitches today, as we read on in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"!  What could be funnier than a fairy queen, under a spell, falling in love with a man who has the head of a donkey?!  We stopped each time the plot took a crazy twist, deciphering the prose and discussing it.  They were begging to read more, but they will just have to wait until next week!

Writing-  Some of the students brought in paragraphs that needed editing.  I edited and returned them, so that they can make revisions at home.  Our persuasive essays are due on May 14th.

Math-  The 4B class has been working with data collection and compilation.  They each gave out surveys to 20 people, and brought them to class today.  They will now be creating different graphs and charts to display their results.  The 3B class worked with 3D shapes today.  Ms. Jennifer used paper objects to demonstrate the different types.

Agriculture-  The final video project is almost finished!  The kids absolutely loved making this... and I cannot wait to compile all of the video and show them the final product!

Science-  Today, Ms. Gail talked to the class about the importance of water.  To show them how much of the water on Earth is saltwater versus fresh, they colored in a sheet with 100 squares, coloring each of the squares that represented saltwater.  Once they were able to see that only 3% of the Earth's water is freshwater, she had them color in 2.5 of the squares to represent frozen water.  That only leave .5% that is usable water. She took the lesson a step further, dividing that water into polluted versus clean water.  The grid did a great job of putting things into perspective!  Then, she filled a large container with clear water.  Each of the children were given a film canister, filled with different mixtures or items.  Each represented a pollutant.  As Ms. Gail read about the different pollutants in our water, the students took turns bringing up the correlating canister, dumping it into the water.  It was a great demonstration!  The class ended with the big biology test.  Only one more day of science left in the school year!  I can't believe it!

Literature-  Ms. Gail began class by allowing the students to stand up and share their mythological creations.  Unfortunately, only three of the students completed theirs.  It was disappointing, but the three that did their work did a fantastic job.  Ms. Gail reviewed the kids' at home assignments, discussing the answers as they plugged along.  Then, they read on in their Greek mythology lesson.  Myths were passed along verbally from generation to generation before they were written down.  Therefore, there are many variations to the stories.  To demonstrate this, Ms. Gail used the telephone game. 

Social Studies-  Mr. Dennis taught the class about Roosevelt and the New Deal today.  They learned about the different in Roosevelt's policies in comparison to the three previous Republican Presidents.  They discussed his famous First Hundred Days, Alphabet Agencies, and his Fireside Chats.  The class ended with a test that covered Post WWI through the New Deal.  They will be learning about WWII soon, and at least a few of them were so excited they couldn't stand it!