Settling Back In

All year we've been learning many writing strategies to apply to our writing, and now it's time to bring our realistic fiction stories to fruition. We are working hard to write powerful endings, edit our work, and publish our stories into beautiful finished projects. These will be ready to share with you at conferences!

In the last two weeks we've begun to study regions of the United States. To kick off this unit we watched a YouTube video called "Tour the States." The video is AMAZING! A man draws the entire US (with capitals and symbols to represent each state) set to music. Here is the link in case you'd like to watch! https://youtu.be/_E2CNZIlVIg 

Mrs. Cain worked with PTA to arrange for a special presentation from the Science Museum of MN. 4th and 5th grade's presentation focused on engineer and how engineers continually work through problem solving processes to address everyday problems.  Thank you to Mrs. Cain and our fabulous PTA for making this event happen!!!

Newsela is an online newspaper designed and written for students. We spent a few minutes a week ago exploring the site, choosing articles to read, and writing a summary and reflection.

Over the next few weeks as we study the regions we will be analyzing our reading to determine key information and then categorizing this information as shown above. During our reading I'll also work with students on strategies for note taking and creating graphic sketches (quick drawings packed with meaning).

On Friday we had SEVEN kiddos gone! Yikes! We took advantage of the afternoon to tackle some classroom needs. A group of students volunteered to reorganize our classroom library, another group moved and reorganized our classroom games, and a third group handled prepping book orders. I love their willingness to help and the ownership they have in our classroom. My name may be on the door, but it's THEIR classroom!!!

Horns up!

Wore our Bison gear today to support the herd! Love that our loyal Sioux fans are true to their team as well!!! :) This picture was also our first class Instagram post. To follow our class on Instagram, please follow the steps in the email I sent today. 

After a long winter break we spent some time revisiting our classroom rule (Our class CARES about our learning, each other, and ourselves.) We brainstormed tons of character words for each letter in CARES and charted them (left side in the picture above). Now begins the phase of the year when Mrs. Clarey graffitis these words on kids desks (with Sharpie paint pens...don't worry, it'll come off in the spring...) as she sees these qualities in students. Today we also had a lengthy discussion about what it means to be a digital citizen (be part of an online community) and what our digital footprint is (anything we post online stays linked to us). We also talked about how to be safe and how to use technology in the classroom appropriately. Our iPads are here, but the screen protectors and cases haven't arrived yet. We can't wait for everything to be set up and ready to go!!!

Dinomummy is the story of a  mummified dinosaur discovered in Hell Creek, North Dakota. When we read about Mary Anning last fall (a researcher from England) I wanted to share this, but I couldn't find it. Frustrating!!! As I was cleaning out our basement over winter break I discovered it in a box. YES! It was so interesting to read about not only Dakota, but also about the process the scientists went through to uncover and excavate his body. Great read!!!