MAP Testing

In the next couple weeks, your child will be participating in spring MAP testing.  They will take the Math MAP test on Friday, April 25th at 1pm and the Reading MAP test on Monday, May 5th at 9:15 am.  You can help your child by ensuring they get plenty of rest the night before and have a healthy breakfast.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Exploring Electricity!

In science, we are focusing on electricity and circuits. The students and I have had a lot of fun experimenting with static electricity, lighting a light bulb using wire and a battery, learning about conductors and insulators, and teaching each other about alternative energies that are being developed. Through these experiments, we have learned about completing a circuit, what materials conduct electricity well, working a fan, and how switches work in our houses! We even did some additional research on clap lights! We will be finishing up our unit on electricity this week by exploring electrical hazards and how to prevent them. Here are some pictures of us exploring electricity!

So many artists in 4-1!

In writing, students have thought about character traits from characters in James and the Giant Peach. For their final writing assignment, students had to think of three character traits that describe James and support their thinking with examples from the text. We have been working on supporting our thinking with textual evidence and these writing pieces shows how far they have come! They also had to make a cover for their final writing piece and I was amazed at the artists that we have in the classroom! Here are some examples of the fantastic cover art!

Greek Mythology

As part of a two week study on Greek Mythology, students have learned about mythological characters commonly found in stories from Ancient Greece. They have read stories and profiles on specific Greek Gods and the ways that they interacted with each other on Mount Olympus. Students have also been thinking about phrases that we use today that come from Greek Mythology. They have  done individual research and thought about how a specific Greek God might react to an interview being done on them. To summarize the unit, students practiced and performed plays of common Greek myths. They were extremely excited to show off their acting skills and perform stories that ancient Greeks used to explain how the seasons came to be, where spiders came from, and what can happen when you are greedy. Here are some pictures from the fabulous performances that were done!