"Where's my trailer? I need water. Fill my trailer with water!"

Spanish- Today, Ms. Joanne helped the students as they continued to prepare for the grand opening of their Mexican restaurant, Taco Fiesta! In addition to finishing up the menus and signs for the school house, they worked on their bull fighting presentation. It was just as feisty a morning as it sounds!

Spelling- Today, we had a written speed quiz. The kids raced to write down the spelling words correctly. Instead of a humdrum “quiz”, it was a fun, high energy race for each word! It is amazing how just a little change in wording can turn a boring review into an exciting game!

Poetry- We finished filming our video for “My Shadow” today! I will post it as soon as it is ready!

Grammar- Today, we took our lesson on prepositions a bit further with prepositional phrases. We are going to continue to try to memorize the list of prepositions. The kids put the first three lines to the tune of the ABC's to help them stick!

Reading- I can't believe we are almost finished with “The Earthshaking Earthquake Mystery”! We discussed chapters 9 and 10 today, reviewing all of the vocabulary words found in the chapters. I loved that the kids remembered the word “scarp” from “The Indian in the Cupboard”! Excellent!

Math- The kids were introduced to remainders in division today. We used manipulatives and split them up into equal groups. They were able to see with their own eyes what happens if you divide 35 by 4. There are some that are left over! After working with the visuals, we then worked through the concept together on the board. We will be doing actual long division problems on paper beginning Tuesday! This will give us some time to get comfortable with the concept before it is introduced in Teaching Textbooks (Lesson 62).

Science- Our group project continues! All five kids spend science class working on their water cycle skit. They went over the changes that we made and revised it yet again so that all characters were pleased with their scripts. Luckily, I did not have to order bigger trailers or sparkling water imported from a spring in the Alps. After the revision process was complete, they worked on their costume signs. I will video their presentation on Tuesday!

Social Studies- The class continued talking about the conflicts between Parliament/Great Britian and the colonies over taxes. They also discussed cause and effect relationships, using a diagram to get a visual on the decisions made by British Parliament.

Writing- In lieu of store bought Valentines, our class will be doing a writing project that shows how much they appreciate each other. This is a super top secret assignment, not to be revealed until the Valentine's Day party! The kids drew names, secretly. Each student will be completing a graphic organizer about the classmate that they drew in class.

The organizer has three main parts:

1. A description of the person. This can include a physical description that tell about their friend. Think about all of the things that make the person different from everyone else. How are they unique? This is the section that can include age, appearance, likes and dislikes, etc.
2. Personality Traits. In this section, think about adjectives that describe your friend's personality. What are they like? What about their personality makes them unique? Describe why they are special.
3. Behavior: How does this person show that he or she is your friend? What have they done or how do they act to let you know?

It is very important that each of the kids do their very best on this assignment. They need to think deeply about their subject. The more time and effort that the students spend making their descriptions meaningful, the more special they will make their friend feel this Valentine's Day!

This is a top secret project! Telling any classmate the secret will ruin the surprise we have in store!