Today began with a spelling review. The kids worked in teams to see how many spelling words they could fit onto a board with crossword tiles. They only counted if they were spelled correctly! Afterward, we reviewed vocabulary list 3. We'll wrap up this list next week. Test on Tuesday!
In grammar, we began by reviewing the homework review. I go beyond the book to make sure that the students actually master the material before moving on. Right now, we need to hang out and work with action, helping, linking, and state of being verbs, as well as predicate nominatives and direct objects. If we move on before truly comfortable, it will just cause, as I called it today, a "snowball of disaster"! Each class worked on identifying different types of verbs and diagramming sentences of increasing complexity. As we worked through a review lesson in the book, the kids were showing much improvement! We'll review more at home before moving on next week.
Writing class was a doozie today! They have been working a lot with creative writing, but today they learned how to write a different type of paragraph: the expository paragraph. These kids have learned some great writing tips and strategies so far, and I am excited to see how they progress with this new writing genre!The class showed off their posters and invitations today. At home, they created invitations or posters to encourage colonists to join the Boston Tea Party. These kids did a fantastic job with these! They made them small enough to fit in their interactive notebooks, which is where they collect materials from all of their lessons. Ms. Hilary taught the class about the Boston Massacre and further discussed the Boston Tea Party today. Our hope is to actually spark interest, not just memorize facts!
In science today, the kids finished up their fossil activity from last week by breaking open the cup and cleaning away their fossils! They turned out great! Next, the class moved on to a study of water. "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink." Ms. Sally began with this quote and a discussion about why this could be the case. The kids came up with answers like saltwater, pollution, or situations like the hurricane, where there was no clean water. At home, the students learned all about the water cycle, soil water, groundwater, watersheds, and much more. In class, they discussed these things, and created a terrarium with different layers of rock and soil. The terrarium will act as a greenhouse, as well. The ended the class with a short writing assignment in their science notebooks. We decided that science should always be messy and fun!
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