Wrapping Up March Madness

We will conclude our month-long, very exciting March Madness Reading Tournament this week when Kickoff takes on 11 Birthdays for the championship.  All children have worked SUPER hard writing and presenting persuasive speeches and posters advertising their books and enthusiasm for reading is SKY HIGH in our classroom right now! Children are taking a look at new books they might otherwise never have tried out before!  Through it all they've been great sports and have supported each other.  I am so proud of everyone!  On Thursday, our two finalists will dress up as the main characters of their respective books and present their stories from the point of view of that character.  Then, we'll vote!  We can't wait to see which will be the last book standing!

In Reader's Workshop, we have been doing a lot of independent reading and writing about our thinking about our reading.  Additionally, we are gearing up for SBAC testing with some really fun activities.  For example, this week, we played Reading Jeopardy, a game focused on getting kids to think about Main Idea, Author's Craft, Text Structure, and Vocabulary after they had read a specific text.  Everyone is loving the game and really thinking hard and coming up with fabulous answers! Best of all, they don't even know how hard they're working!

In Writer's Workshop, we have been spending a lot of time on our Animal Adaptations research project.  Students have used the Internet, library books, videos, and other media to do research on their chosen animal.  Now, they are compiling all they've learned into informational books.  As a class we have been learning about wolves, which is the animal I have used to model lessons on. When we get back from April break, we will begin a unit on Fairy Tale writing.

This week we will complete our third rotation in science and move on to the last unit of study with Mrs. Grindrod. We should be experts by now on her topic of Animals!

Everyone did a fantastic job on our mid-module assessment in math on fractions.  We're continuing on learning about plotting fractions on a number line and improper fractions. It's been hard work, but everyone in Room 29 is up for the challenge.  Everyone is actually enjoying working with the manipulatives that are helping them to better visualize this often tricky concept.

Even though I drove home from Easter yesterday in the snow in upstate Connecticut, I'm hoping spring is really here!  Remember, we're going outside every day now, so make sure your child is appropriately dressed for the weather!

Happy Spring!!!!