McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of March 7, 2016

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, March 14th - Weekly reading logs due

Tuesday, March 15th - Home link due

Wednesday, March 16th - Early Release Wednesday

Thursday, March 17th -  Spelling due  / Final States Quiz (50)

Friday, March 18th - Home link due

Adventure-Based Learning: Thursday, March 10

Thursday, Mrs. Murray visited again and brought some very hard challenges!  First students worked with a partner to build a linear structure out of four blocks on the floor.  Students then used one pointer-finger each to work together to pick up and carry their structure.  Mrs. Murray invited them to do tricks, such as walking the perimeter of the room and doing twirls while carrying their structure.  One group (Tommy, Maddie F., Lillian, and Preston) created a move that we nicknamed, “Crowning the Prince”!

    The second challenge was to hold two fingers together, palm-down, parallel to the floor.  A hula hoop rested on top of the finger-tips of the kids in the group.  They were to raise and lower the hoop without anyone’s fingers leaving the hoop.  It was way harder than we expected, and many groups fell into the Blame Game.  We processed in our groups and then again back in the classroom about how to be supportive when someone feels blamed.  One student shared that a teacher said that sometimes it’s not blaming; it’s just feedback said in a negative way, and we need to be careful to make sure we deliver our feedback in a positive way.  The frustrations around these issues provides opportunities for kids to learn their roles -- be they productive or otherwise -- in a group, and to recognize ways to change to help the whole group succeed.

    See photos below, and check out Mrs. Mayberry’s video: https://youtu.be/tYgB0K-Imzs

Academic Updates:

Reading Workshop

This week we focused on building background knowledge about immigration through Ellis Island.  We read The Memory Coat, a wonderful story about a Russian family who almost doesn’t pass inspection at Ellis Island.  The author’s note details her inspiration for writing the story and historical information about Russia and the trials of families’ journeys to America.  We have been noticing how handy those author’s notes are -- we always wonder what’s true and what’s from the author’s imagination as we’re reading.  

    Soon, we will highlight how authors use certain kinds of details and words to show the setting.  And then we will study how writers use the setting to show the mood of a time period.  All of this will contribute to careful craft moves as we begin writing historical fiction stories in writing workshop...soon!

When a book is so good, you just have to read it right HERE!...

...and then 3 minutes later, right HERE!

Writing Workshop

Our writers were so productive this week!  They wrote all three supporting idea paragraphs for their second flash-draft (using the term “flash” very loosely, given that we will be about two weeks late finishing this unit), and then we moved on to write introduction paragraphs.  Those turned out to be extra-sophisticated, because the Mayberrys thought their first draft was a bit ho-hum.  So we added a lead, choosing from a few sentence-starters, and then I showed them how to connect their ending sentences to that lead!  If they can do that, so can the McFarlands!  Sophistication everywhere!  Here’s the Mayberrys’ introduction paragraph, which we wrote together as practice before kids wrote their own intros for a different essay:

    Many people have experienced loneliness.  In the story “Spaghetti,” by Cynthia Rylant, a boy named Gabriel is lonely when he sits on a stoop, daydreaming about living outside.  By the end of the story Gabriel finds a kitten, who gives him company.  Like Gabriel, many lonely people eventually find company.

    Pretty good, huh?

    Final drafts next week!

Math

This week students worked with angle rotations, identifying angles according to their size (acute, obtuse and right) and a review of the overall unit concepts. Next week we will begin the unit 6 in the EM4 program. This unit concentrates primarily on division of large numbers, how to interpret remainders, more work with operations involving fractions and some more work with angle measurements.

Spelling

This week students looked at words ending in y and learned that if the ending is consonant-y, they need to change the y to i before adding a suffix, and if the ending is vowel-y, you don’t change it before adding the suffix.

Theme

This week students worked hard to turn their research into organized paragraphs.  We’ve had some good conversations about editing and when to use capitals with some of our information (capitals, names of landmarks, nicknames).  

    I have taught several workshops on planning and organizing a poster board to be neat and inviting.  We have definitely had some learning moments -  spelling the name of our state wrong, having lettering go downhill, starting in the middle of the board and running out of room, etc.  Some students have been motivated to fix it, by flipping the board over and starting over, and some chose not to.   My plan is to have the students grade the projects with me and reflect upon the process, so they can improve next time.  If students want to have color pictures on their poster, they need to print those at home and bring them to school, preferably by 3/16.

Additionally, I (Mrs. Begley) would love to have 1-2 parent volunteers per class on Tuesday, March 15th.  Please email me directly if you can help.  McFarland - 9:40am,  Begley 10:40 am, and Mayberry 2pm.

Please remember to keep studying the states!  Next week’s goal is 50 states.  The last quiz will be Thursday, March 17th.