Monday, November 30th

WELCOME BACK!!!
 I hope you all had a restful week.  We hit the ground running today and got so much accomplished!

We did a quick review of our metric conversions today.  Students then worked with multi-step word problems to create tape diagrams, model equations, and write statements about their problem solving.  We have a couple of groups left to meet with tomorrow and will plan to start our assessment tomorrow, if possible, and continue it on Wednesday.

After a quick review, we were able to move forward with our inquiry into organizing for decision making.  We explored the First Continental Congress and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  Students examined a short video and linked it to a reading passage to determine the reasons the Continental Army went to these cities, and the outcomes of those battles.

Students who to the GA Milestones Assessment last school year have received their scores.  They were placed in their red communication folders along with a letter explaining the scoring.

MAP Testing
Our MAP Testing schedule is below.  Ms. Ehmer and I are in the process of reviewing fall scores with students individually and helping them set some goals.
12/9 - Math 7:55
12/10 - Reading 7:55
12/11 - Language 7:55

See you tomorrow!!

Friday, November 20th

Happy Friday!!

We had a great day!

Students worked to utilize metric conversions to change Liter to Milliliters or the reverse.  They reviewed factors and multiples through a game and some completed a logic problem.

We reviewed our weather and weather instruments today.  Students were able to add them to their IB journals with pictures and descriptions.  We then worked to create an assessment on the water cycle using Explain Everything on our iPads.  Here are some examples of our water cycle assessment:

Water Cycle Assessment
Water Cycle Assessment 2

It was an exciting afternoon as our school held our first College and Career Explorations of the school year.  All students went to explore anything from fundraising, cupcake decorating, internet resources, team building, and more.  Ask your child about their Exploration!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful break.  I wish you safe travels, and know that you are all in my thoughts.  I am incredibly thankful for all of the students in our class, and all of their wonderful families!  Thank you so much for your support this year!

See you on Monday, November 30th!

Thursday, November 19th

We had a busy and wonderful day!

After reviewing and practicing with area and perimeter this morning, we took a short assessment over the standards.

We were fortunate to have a Ms. Craig join us as a guest speaker.  She is a weather expert and was able to share and explain many concepts about processes of change.  We looked at how knowledge of the past weather helps us to make decisions about future weather.  She even made a cloud in a jar (see video below)!
Cloud in a Jar

We inquired into perspective and point of view today.  Students were challenged to rewrite the story A Bat Boy & His Violin from the point of view of the father in story.  Ask your child to tell you more!

We are looking forward our first round of Explorations tomorrow afternoon!

Don't forget to check the upcoming events area of the blog.  I have added our MAP schedule.
See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 18th

What a wonderful day of being thankful!

I am so thankful that I get to spend every day with your wonderful children.  We have such a fun time, and I truly adore them.  I appreciate each and every one of you.  Thank you for joining us today!

We had some other wonderful experiences today as well!

As we continue our inquiry into ways we organize for change, students worked to create weather instruments.  They explored ways that meteorologists use these instruments to collect data by moving around the school.  Ask your child to tell you more!

Thermometer Video

We are looking forward to a great end of our week!  Have a wonderful evening!

Tuesday, November 17th

Another busy day!

We began our day by signing up for our first College and Career Explorations of the school year.  Ask your child about the Exploration they chose!

Students completed an engagement task using pictures, words, descriptors, and arrows to complete a water cycle puzzle.  We then discussed how we know the water cycle, but so what?  Who cares?  Why do we want to know about the water cycle?  Students made great inferences and were able to connect that we use our knowledge of the water cycle to help make decisions about the weather.  When then explored different weather tools!  Ask your child to tell you more!

Students did an amazing job of beginning to add evidence to support their reasons for their opinion.  We were able to model on the board and begin our research, interviews, and writing our personal experiences.  Students may ask for your assistance with an interview or research to help support their opinion writing.

We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for our Thanksgiving luncheon!!  

Have a wonderful evening!

Monday, November 16th

Welcome back!  I hope that you enjoyed a restful weekend!

We continued our explorations of metric measurements.  We are using our knowledge of measurement to convert measurements of length using place value strategies.  Students are continuing to inquire into area and perimeter during small groups.  They worked today to create quadrilaterals using color tiles.  The measurements were determine by the cards drawn from a deck.

We enjoyed our media center visit today!  Students are completing their unit on our research engines.  They have been following task cards and completing reflections using their iPads and Google Classroom.

We worked this afternoon to use our knowledge about opinion writing to develop reasons to support our opinion.  Students utilized a past text to find examples of reasons that supported the author's opinions.  They then worked with their graphic organizer to add their reasons.  Ask your child to tell you more!

Ms. Ehmer sends a huge thank you for all the the kindness and thoughtful gifts you sent for her birthday last Monday.  She had a wonderful day!

We are incredibly excited about our upcoming Thanksgiving Luncheon!  Our lunch begins at 11:40, and we would love to have you join us to celebrate.  We have so much to be thankful for!

I hope you have a great evening!  Check out the picture below!  These girls participated in the Girls on the Run 5k over the weekend.  We are so proud of you!!!

Friday, November 13th

Happy Friday, y'all!

We had a great day!  It started with an introduction to metric conversions.  Students compared cm to m to km today and worked to convert between the units.  They are also working to complete addition and subtraction equations involving mixed metric units.

Students explore ways the colonists organized to begin making decisions about how they are being controlled.  The explored the Sons of Liberty, Loyalists, boycotts and more.

Students worked to determine their thesis statement for their opinion pieces.  Ask your child to tell you what they plan to write about.  Their goal is to provide three reasons that they believe their opinion to be true.

Today is the last day for our parent survey.  It only takes a few minutes (I did one as a teacher, and the students completed one as well).  Please follow the link and complete the survey.  Thank you!!
Parent Survey
We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving Luncheon on Wednesday the 18th at 11:40, and our first round of explorations on Friday.
Report cards will be sent home on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, November 12th

We had a busy, busy day!

Students completed their exploration of area and perimeter by working with shapes on the floor and tables.  Ask your child to tell you more about their rotation through our classroom!

As we continued to inquire into processes of change, we explored the water cycle.  Students observed and analyzed what was occurring in during our experiment today.  We identified the different phases of the water cycle, and students created a note catcher to illustrate those changes.

We continued our exploration into points of view.  Students are able to give evidence from their text that demonstrates if the book is written in the 1st or 3rd person point of view.  They are reflecting on their reading in their reading reflection journals.

Don't forget that we have our Thanksgiving Luncheon on November 18th from 11:40-12:10.  We hope you can join us!

Here's the link for our parent survey.  Thank you for taking a few minutes to respond to the questions.
Parent Survey

Wednesday, November 11th

It's Wednesday!!!

We had a wonderful day!!!
Please take just a moment to complete the parent survey on our school climate.  It is such valuable information for us!!
Parent Survey
Thank you!!!!!

We had such a wonderful day!
After working our way through word problems involving multi-steps and area/perimeter, we headed downstairs to Ms. Theisen's room for activity.  We continued our inquiry into processes of change in states of matter.  Ms. Theisen used the materials pictured to causes changes in our water.  Students made hypotheses, and observations before drawing conclusions.  Ask your child to tell you more!!

We were fortunate to have King George III, members of his parliament, and his tax collectors visit our classroom today!!  Excited in the beginning, the colonists were not as thrilled when they realized that King George III was imposing and collecting unfair taxes!!  The process of change occurring in the colonies is a difficult one, and colonists are beginning to organize to make decisions about these changes.  Ask your child to tell you more!!

Don't forget that our Thanksgiving luncheon is November 18th from 11:40-12:10.

See you tomorrow!!

Tuesday, November 10th

Happy Tuesday!  Because our internet was down yesterday afternoon, I was unable to make a post.

We had a great day!
As we continue are inquiry into processes of change, students explored several resources on their Discovery Education app to learn more about how matter changes from a solid to a liquid to a gas.  They recorded the discoveries on a note catcher for their IB journals.  We discussed their findings to broaden their explanations and clarify misconceptions.

Sheila Turnage was our visiting author today! We enjoyed a presentation about her books and about how/when she decided to become a writer.  Ask your child to tell you more!

As we continued our exploration of opinion writing, we had a great lesson on the difference between an opinion piece and a persuasive piece.  Students are working to notice the author's purpose and audience in our exemplar writing samples.  They are also generating a short list of ideas for opinion essays.

Please complete the parent survey
Thank you so much for taking the time to complete the parent survey (link below).  We only have until Friday to have them completed.  Let's get 100% participation!!!

Thanksgiving Luncheon
Our Thanksgiving Luncheon is next Wednesday from 11:40-12:10.  We hope you can join us to celebrate this time to be reflective and grateful for all that we have.  Please RSVP.  The cost is $5, and you will pay on the day of the luncheon.

See you in the morning!

Friday, November 6th

Happy Friday!!

After starting our morning without power, we happily enjoyed our Village Gathering when the power returned shortly after 8.

We worked in small groups for math today to explore area and perimeter.  Students used color tiles to build rectangles.  We worked to use multiplicative comparison to create rectangles that were two and three times larger than our original creation.

Students explored the cause of the French and Indian War.  After reading and exploring our conflict scenarios yesterday, students explored a reading passage and then added a flip book to their journals outlining the causes of the French and Indian War.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, November 5th

Happy Thursday!!!

Another busy day on the AVE!
After exploring more with area and perimeter, students worked to create rectangles.  They measured with rulers and went to another rectangle to determine the area and perimeter.  Students will be working with area and perimeter for homework tonight.  See the link below for assistance.
Homework

We used ice, salt, and a can to explore a process of change in our ice.  Ask your child to tell you more!

Students were introduced to our opinion writing unit.  We explored how to locate an author's opinion and looked at the evidence the author provided to support their opinion.

DON'T FORGET:
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!
Please take time to complete the parent survey at the link below.  An explanation of the survey is given at the end of this blog post.  We are aiming for 100% parent participation!!  Thank you in advance!!
Parent Survey

Are you interested in assisting or leading College and Career Explorations???  We would love to have you!  Click the link below to sign up!
College and Career Explorations Sign Up
Our Village Gathering is at 8:00 tomorrow morning!  We hope you can join us!
Have a great evening!!

Survey Information

Based upon student, parent and staff responses, along with other data,  we will be assigned a star rating from 1-5. The School Climate Star Rating is calculated using data from the Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0, Georgia School Personnel Survey, Georgia Parent Survey, student discipline data and attendance records for students, teachers, staff and administrators.  The School Climate Star Rating provides school-level data on the following components:

1) School Climate – a measure of student, teacher, and parent perceptions of a school’s climate and the congruency between the three;

2) Student Discipline – a look into disciplinary practices and utilization of the research-based practices promoting positive interventions; 

3) Safe and Substance-Free Learning Environment – student responses on use of illegal substances and the prevalence of violence, bullying, and unsafe incidents within a school; and

4) Attendance – the average daily attendance of students, teachers, administrators, and staff members. 

Each of the components will be given equal value.