Week of February 11

We hope you all enjoy February break.  Mrs. Conley will be at the Cross Insurance Arena attending the boys' and girls' Red Storm semi-final basketball games. Her daughter is on the girls' team and her husband is the boys' varsity coach.

Thank you for sending in the kids' purple folders.  If you have not had a chance yet, please return them after vacation.  Thank you.

In reading this week, we finished Wolf Hollow.  We discussed the themes in the story and traits of the main characters. Mrs. Conley gave a book talk on Lauren Wolk's other historical fiction book, Beyond the Bright Sea. Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow's only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn't until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. 

We will begin our next read aloud Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. This book ties in nicely with our European Explorer unit. Morning Girl is a twelve-year-old Taino, and her younger brother, Star Boy.  This story vividly recreates life on a Bahamian island in 1492.

We hope you enjoy the pictures from our library lessons this week.  The students worked in groups and brainstormed the statement  - "European Explorers changed the world." The groups' guidelines were to write their questions down without judging them or answering them.  Questions they came up with include How did they change the world? and Why were they fighting? Our second lesson followed the same format, this time the students were given different pictures that go with the focus statement.

Fractions, Fractions, Fractions!
In math we continue to develop our understanding of fractions and equivalent fractions.  We learned a great game called Fraction Coverall.  Depending on the roll of the dice, players are allowed to "cover" fractions that sum to the assigned value.  The game requires that children recognize equivalent fractions and that fractions can be composed from smaller fractions.  For example, the fraction 1/2 could be covered by 1/3 + 1/6, 1/4 + 1/4, 2/8 + 1/4, etc.  This flexibility in thinking is important for kids to develop.  

We have been finishing up our biome projects as well as continuing our study of exploration.  We learned about Marco Polo and how his book that described the riches of Asia enticed Europeans to go exploring.  

On Friday we had our National Play Day afternoon.  The kids had a blast and it was wonderful to see kids interact with each other in a different way.