POLs

I hope that everyone had a relaxing three day weekend! Tomorrow we will be reflecting on the holiday by looking at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. Also this week we will begin our POLs.  Each student will be presenting to the class what they have learned so far this year.  There are still many empty time slots, so please sign up for a time if you have not done so already.  We will need to start assigning times for students if there are still empty spaces tomorrow.  You can sign up via Alexis' blog- there is a spreadsheet posted there.

We are also continuing our exploration of fiction and non-fiction texts.  For non-fiction, we are working on summaries for the Cartoon History of the United States. Since we have finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphins and Holes, we are currently writing summaries and book reviews.  Also, last week we researched navigation tools that were used by early explorers.  Afterwards, the class made real compasses!

In preparation of his student teaching, our co-teacher, Alex, gave a wonderful lesson on the history of language.  In addition to learning about the origin of the English language, students learned how to combine prefixes, root words, and suffixes of Latin and Greek words.