Spring Semester

I am excited to announce that we will be taking a field trip to one of my favorite nurseries, City Farmers. We will be looking at ways to study plants and beautify the school grounds by adding some "green features." We will have the chance to contribute to the backyard project that Michael's class is spearheading. The plan is to have parents carpool the students to the nursery and have a short guided tour. We are planning on going on Wednesday, the 22nd of this month. Please let me know if you are able to drive and chaperon once we arrive. As a class, we will decide if there is any items we wish to purchase and possibly have donated. Bill, the owner, has often been generous with schools in the past.

Academically, we are continuing to work on our personal narratives. Our focus has been concentrated on adding figurative language to our writing. We have discussed the different ways of doing this such as; hyperbole, simile, metaphor, alteration, and personification. For math, we have begun a new unit on algebraic thinking and reasoning. Students have been challenged to use variables to represent unknown numbers. Linear function equations are then used to plot points on coordinate (x,y) graphs. We had fun today playing tic-tac-toe, using these coordinate graphs. We have also had conversations about how we can speak and write like mathematicians. Ask your child what they accomplished in math today, the answer might surprise you!

Next week is the due date for our historical narratives. Many students are finishing these up right now. Eventually we will be presenting them in various ways, including skits, living museums, and power-points.