The Week of March 19

HELP
We are looking for some nonfiction magazines such as: National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Sports Illustrated, Outdoor Life and any others you have at home. We will be doing a fun scavenger hunt for nonfiction text features on Friday. Thank you! 

Jon Gailmor Concert

We had a wonderful time on Monday night! Jon Gailmor put on a wonderful concert for W.E.S. families. Students will get their own CD of the Waterville songs we created. 

Readers' Workshop

This week in reading we continued to work on identifying and and using nonfiction text features. This week we worked on using captions, and close ups. Students have enjoyed reading nonfiction texts independently and with partners. We also continue to compare nonfiction and fiction texts in our small reading groups. 

Writers' Workshop

Students enjoyed getting back into our punctuation inquiry project. This week we focused on using quotations marks. Students did a quotation mark hunt in their favorite texts. We noticed how authors' used quotation marks. We learned a fun song called Do You Know Quotation Marks? -which definitely got stuck in our heads... Later in the week, we used elbow macaroni as our quotation marks, and wrote our own sentences! We took a break from the three types of writing (narrative, opinion and nonfiction), and continued with free choice writing this week. I love seeing all of the different types of writing going on, and especially love watching the kiddos try out the different strategies and tips we have learned this year! These students are so creative and love writing! 

Science 

States Of Matter 

This week we explored matter and how it can be made of tiny things. Students used Legos, pattern blocks, rainbow tiles and small pieces of construction paper to create larger things from tiny pieces. We also learned things can be remade from small pieces. We also did a small group sort, which students had to work together to find a way to sort their solid items. After a scientist meeting, we came to a consensus that our solid items should be sorted by observable characteristics, such as material, texture and flexibility.  

Math 

In math, we continued to work on using the number line. We practiced finding the mystery number on the number line by using our number sense about tens, fives and parts/wholes. Students learned some fun new math centers this week. We learned a new game called Frog Path, and loved working at our place value station where we practiced with numbers greater than 100. Students used place value blocks, and also used arrow cards to begin representing the different values with numbers.