Room 20 Classroom Notes June 3-7

I had a great time this weekend at the Woodstock Farmer's Market. Be there on Sundays!!  In reading, we will be finishing "The Woodsrunner" and "If You Lived During the American Revolution." We started a video about the Mayflower, which showed what life was like in Europe and why people chose to risk it all to come to the New World. We will do a timeline, showcasing when Native Americans came to what we now call the United States, the first settlers in Jamestown and a bit later on the Mayflower, and the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War. We will have a test on The American Revolution on Friday- study guide will be circulated on Monday. We will have a decimals test Thursday. We finish our exploration about decimals this week. This week we work with and show ten-thousandths! It's difficult to continue looking at a 1,000 x 1,000 grid, but that's what it takes! We are collecting all of our writing this year. There are seven major writing pieces that will be placed in a hard copy and digital portfolio. These can be transfered to MS Word or Pages for posterity. We will also, per Ms. Jamesbarry's suggestion, start a memory book. Students will get one page to draw, write or paste anything they want on it. At the end of the week, we will amass them and copy it into a book for the kids so they might remember each other, Lewis, and of course, room 20. In our family life and sexual health lessons, we will be learning about self-esteem, puberty, and the reproductive system. For science, we will be creating a similar mini-poster of an INVERTEBRATE in class this week. Instructions will be given out on Monday. We will have one last weekly essay for the year due Friday. By the way, these essays have been amazing! Our kids have grown so much as writers! This week's topic: Who are you? Where do you come from? We have all, at one time, come from different parts of the world. I want you to interview your parents/relatives and ask questions about where your family comes from and any additional information. I will send home an organizer on Monday. This is to help you discover something about yourself and family members before you move to the middle school experience. I want you to get a better sense of who you are. We will also have nightly math and Social Studies homework. To recap: essay due Friday. Nightly math and social studies HW due next day. I hope you have a great week!