Spring Picture Things

Mr. History came for a visit last week and drew us this! While he drew he explained about Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, how Lewis and Clark and their team (pictured here) traveled and explored the area, and what happened to each of of these individuals. Did you know one of the men accidentally shot Meriweather Lewis in a very "uncomfortable" place? You'll have to ask your kiddo where that was... :)

On Friday we said goodbye to Miss Yaniero, our practicum student from NDSU. She will make a great teacher in a few years, and we will miss her!!!

You may remember that last fall and right after Christmas we had conversations surrounding our classroom "CARES" rules (how we take care of ourselves, each other, and our learning). After winter break the students worked in groups to brainstorm words for each letter to complete the thinking stem "We expect students in our class to be_____" They came up with GREAT, powerful words, and they have lived up to these expectations for sure!!!

The picture below is of one of the windows at the back of our classroom. We've covered it with a giant grid and are recording the titles of all the books we've read (on our own) this year. Apparently I should have made the boxes smaller to fit more boxes, because we have less than 20 boxes open and have more than a month left of school. Whoops! I am ASTOUNDED by the amount of reading these guys have done this year...amazing!!!

Fraction Models and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll!"

What an afternoon! We spent a good chunk of today's math lesson working on ways to add and subtract three fractions using strategies and models that are accurate, flexible (having the ability to utilize multiple strategies to solve the same problem), and efficient. Here are a few pictures of each group working diligently to show different strategies and check one another's accuracy. Below this is a picture of the models I gathered from their work as I tip toed between groups. 

After math we reflected back to our National Geographic Explorer article titled "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" from our morning reading and embarked on a challenge to use what we had read about earthquakes and how to protect ourselves. Each group was given a bag of marshmallows and a box of toothpicks as building tools, the only requirement being that the structure must be 20 or more centimeters tall. Our goal was for each group to construct 6 identical structures so that we could simulate earthquakes and text twice for duration, intensity, and soil structure. As you can see, we ran a little short on time, but here are a few shots of our groups!!!

Try as I might, I can't remember this last groups name. If your son or daughter is one of these kiddos will you ask them the team name and email it to me? I can add their name to the picture and update the post.

Have a great weekend!!!

Brownie Maps

A few pics of our very successful afternoon of map making! Thank you SO MUCH to all the families who provided ingredients and to Mrs. Kililea for joining us!!!

Pic #1 - getting started

Pic #2 - all done! Amazing how accurate these are if you study the details!!!