Team 22 Highlights 3/29/18

Dear Team 22 Families,

We had a great short week at school! It's strange to think it will already be April when the students return to school next week. 

Technology

This week, the students had an opportunity to explore all of the tools that will be available for their use when completing the MCAS exam. We participated in a whole-class navigation tutorial that allowed the students to learn about each of the features and how to utilize them. This built more confidence among the students in regard to their MCAS test date. After completing the tutorial, the students moved ahead and worked on an MCAS practice test online. This allowed them to use the new tools and develop more familiarity with the test format.

Reading and Writing

In Reading this week, the students continued working on previous MCAS practice tests, reading passages, and answering questions. The students completed some of their practice whole-class, some with a partner, and most independently. They have now had much exposure to the types of texts they may come across and have become familiar with the kinds of comprehension questions and writing prompts that will be presented to them come Monday and Tuesday.

To develop critical thinking skills within students and to provide students with more opportunities for responding to writing, the students have begun explaining their own interpretations to quotes left for them on the board in the morning. The students did a wonderful job with this and a number of students had a chance to share their thoughts with the class. I was impressed with their thinking and some of the examples they gave.

Math

At last, we finished our fractions unit! The students have put so much effort into this unit and are now so knowledgeable about fractions. It's so exciting to see how much they have learned! We will be starting module 6 this week, focusing on collecting and displaying data. 

Egg Hunt for Parts of Speech!

As the students have been begging for an egg hunt all week, their wish was finally granted! To further prepare them for the MCAS, the students were divided into two teams and directed to look for as many eggs as they could find. Once the eggs were found, students had to crack them open and take out a part of speech hidden inside. The students then had to work together as a team to sort their words and decide whether it was a noun, adjective, or verb.  

Have a great weekend!!!

Best,

Miss Weinstein

Team 22 Highlights 3/23/18

Reading

In Reading, the students have continued to prepare for the MCAS. This week, we focused on "main idea". The students watched several video clips on this concept and then read, with a partner, a number of short excerpts. After completing these readings, the students worked together to find the main idea.

The students created and filled in their own "Main Idea Table". For this, students wrote out the main idea of the reading on top of the table and then added details (inside the legs) from the reading which helped to support the main idea.

Math

The students' fraction pizzas are now all on display in our hallway!

Our class is starting to wrap up its unit on fractions and we will be completing our final assessment of the module at the end of next week. The students have been working so hard during our whole-class mini lessons and in their rotations during math workshop. Students have been using a variety of different strategies to show their work. They most enjoy being able to explain the thinking process they went through in order to solve example problems.

Science

On Monday and Thursday this week, we were lucky enough to have parent volunteer, Mrs. Lavakumar, come into our class to introduce the students to an application called "Makey Makey". Makey Makey is an invention kit that allows users to connect everyday objects to computer programs using a circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable. After learning a bit about how to use the program, the students split up into a number of small groups and worked together to connect the circuit board and clips to pieces of tin foil. The students were able to choose from a number of computer games to try out and used the pieces of tin foil (touching them just as they might touch arrows on a keyboard to change direction). 

Writing

In writing, the students have continued to work on short answer and open response questions based on the MCAS practice readings they complete during the day. The students have been typing up their responses on their chrome books as they will be expected to do the same on the MCAS exam which will be computer-based.

Social Emotional Learning

On Wednesday, March 21st, we held a Day of Kindness at Dunning. During our Circle, our class brainstormed different ways we can show kindness to our friends. Each student had a chance to share one way he or she can spread kindness in our classroom to create a positive community. After sharing, the students received a strip of paper and were instructed to write down and illustrate one good deed they could do in school. The students then worked as a team to connect their strips of paper and staple them in order to create a "chain of kindness" to be hung in our classroom!

Glow Stick Party!

Toward the end of the day on Friday, the students in room 22 celebrated earning all of their class panda paws with a glow stick party! Students played class games, danced along to music, watched fun music videos, and sang along to some Disney favorites!

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Miss Weinstein

Team 22 Highlights 3/16/18

Dear families,

I hope you all survived the crazy blizzard this week!

We had a short week of school, but the students did put in their best effort and produced high quality work.

Reading
In Reading, we continued preparing for the MCAS. This week, the students worked in small groups to read a number of short passages and answered comprehension questions that related to the text. Before the students were sent off to read, we went over several vocabulary words as a class and reviewed different parts of speech. (This week, the students reviewed proper nouns, verbs, compound words, and contractions.) We also reviewed what synonyms and antonyms are and the students had to work, as a class, to help sort word pairs into these categories.

Math
In Math, we started discussing the idea of "equivalent fractions". We have been using lots of visuals, charts, and drawings to demonstrate this concept. The students even participated in making their own Fraction Pizzas where they practiced writing equivalent fractions based on the toppings on their pizzas. The students also had an opportunity to work "hands on" with equivalent fractions, working with fraction blocks and strips. Many fraction games were also available for the students to use during Math Workshop.

Science
In Science this week, the students worked in small groups, exploring wheels, axles, and ramps. Their task was to experiment with different materials to learn what affects a change of motion in regard to the wheels. The students created a number of different systems using an axle and different sized wheels and recorded what they noticed about the direction in which their system moved down the ramp. Many students made comments about how their system curved when they used one large wheel on one end of an axle and one smaller wheel on the other end. Some groups even combined their materials with another group and worked together to form a larger system, some comparing their model to that of a car.

Writing
In Writing, the students have been responding to short answer questions and open response questions about their passages from Reading. The students spent time pulling details out from their text and also practiced citing specific lines from their text as evidence to help support their claims, a critical skill.

Best,

Miss Weinstein