What's that in the sky? Paper airplanes!

Important Dates:

May 28 - no school
June 15 - last day 11:00 dismissal

We had a school wide celebration on Friday! Mrs. Garcia's class came down to help our class make paper airplanes. Then, the whole school went outside and tried flying them through different obstacles such as hula hoops. It was fun for all the students. Here is the link that we used to teach us how to make the paper airplanes. There are videos and templates to printout. Paper Airplanes

Literacy:

We are working on writing our own fiction stories. While writing, we are also using what we have learned during reading. That means thinking about character, how to get characters in and out of trouble, and the lessons that character learn. I am amazed by the writing of the class! I can't wait to send home their stories!

The students have loved library this year! Mr Gile always makes books come to life with the wonderful voices he uses and he helps students find books for any interest! Thanks Mr. Gile for making books come alive!This past week was our last time to take out books for the year. Please look around at home and send back and library books you find.

On Tuesday, a librarian from the Winooski Memorial Library will come visit us to get the kids excited about visiting and using the library this summer.

Math:
We have been working hard defining the attributes of different shapes. We are using words such as straight, curved parallel, angles to describe shapes. We also have been working on decomposing (breaking shapes apart) and composing (putting shapes together) shapes in different way.

Hooray for our Foster Grandparent!

Important Dates:
May 21 - library
May 25 - early dismissal (12:15)
May 28 - no school
June 15 - last day 11:00 dismissal

This week Nana and I went to the Foster Grandparent Recognition Dinner. It was a fun evening and a nice way to celebrate all the support the foster grandparents give to our school.

Literacy:
You would not believe the thoughtful discussion our class has during read aloud time. One day, I had to get our reading coach, Jen Lapointe, so she could come down and here the sophisticated thoughts the students were sharing!

During read aloud, we focused on reading the Tacky books by Helen Lester. We referred to her books during reading and writing time. Her books helped us during writing time as we worked on our own narrative fiction pieces. We analyzed the Tacky books and realized that Helen Lester started the book with strong character development, included patterns, dialogue, and got her characters in and out of trouble. We played around with those same ideas in our own stories.

One group of students in our room read a series of books by Dori Hillestad Butler and loved them so much, that they wrote to the author. I'll let you know if we hear back from her!

Math:
We have started our geometry unit. Be sure to ask your child all about the shapes and the attributes of the shapes we have been learning about!

Happy Mother's Day

Important Dates:
May 25 - early dismissal
May 28 - no school
June 15 - last day 11:00 dismissal

I did a terrible job taking pictures last week, I only ended up with 3 pictures from the entire week! I will do a better job this week. I promise!

I hope all our families enjoyed the Mother's Day presents the students made. The pinch pots were made in art with help from Mrs. Crandall. Then each student worked thoughtfully to choose flowers and arrangement them in their pots. Thank you to all the mom and guardians that provide support, love, and joy for the children in our class.

The fire alarm went off in school this past week. Our class (and all of JFK) did fantastic! They were silent walking out and waiting for the all clear to go back in. Sara Raabe was so impressed she gave everyone popsicles!

On Friday, we saw the fourth and fifth grade production of The Wizard of Oz. Everyone did a great job!


 Literacy:
The authors are working so hard at creating interesting adventures with characters that you want to read about again and again. Eventually, we will be working on our own series of books.

Math:
We took a unit test on Friday. I'm so impressed with the class did on it! These were hard concepts but through the whole unit, the class pushed their thinking, took risks, made conjectures, asked genuine questions, and increased their flexibility with numbers.

Spring has sprung!

Important Dates

May 7 - library
May 9 - early dismissal (12:15)
May 25 - early dismissal
May 28 - no school
June 15 - last day 11:00 dismissal

We have really enjoyed the nicer weather. It's great to be able to go outside with just a light coat or even no coat at all! Hooray for spring!

We had a great time with St. Michael College Professor John Tapper's science museum! Professor Tapper's students created hands-on science activities. I think we could have stayed there all day!

Literacy:
We have started our new reading unit. This unit is all about story elements. We are working more with comprehension and deepening our understanding about how stories work. We will be looking at different book series and looking at themes in books.

We also started a new writing unit. We are learning how to write our own stories! We are having fun created our own characters and having them go on adventures!

Math:
Wow! we had super math thinking this week, including some amazing conjectures as we developing our understanding of part, part, whole in addition and subtraction. More on this next week!