Chapter Summary and Reflex Math

Due to Winter Break, I am not requiring students to complete Reflex Math and a chapter summary this week. There are several students who "owe" me Reflex or a summary from last week, and they are being asked to complete it. If you would like to know if your child owes either a summary or Reflex, you can e-mail me: grocciak@bsd-ri.net.

Gingerbread House

We will be decorating gingerbread houses this Friday! Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 17, 2013, we will be building the gingerbread house using icing "glue" and graham crackers. I will be supplying the materials for this part of the gingerbread house. I am asking for your help with the candy to decorate with. If you would like to send in small candies to make our houses, please do so by Friday!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS :)

Report Cards

Just a quick reminder that report cards will be sent home on Friday, December 13, 2013.

Writing in Science

Writing does not only happen in English Language Arts. This year we have spent a lot of time writing in all subjects including: Math, Social Studies, Health & Science. This week in Science we focused on the difference between series and parallel circuits. Today wrote a Compare & Contrast essay on the similarities and differences between the two types of circuits.

We first put together a graphic organizer that helped to organize the information the students learned from the Science investigations we completed this week. Instead of using the traditional Venn diagram, we used a "Box and T Chart." The kids really liked this organizer because they said, "Miss Groccia there is so much more room to fit my writing."

 

After completing the organizer, we used Compare & Contrast sentence frames to help shape our two paragraph essay. I expect the students to be using transitions and varying sentence structure by the end of the year so at the beginning of the year I like to do a lot of modeling for this type of writing. 

 

When we had filled in the sentence frames, I had the students talk through their essays with a partner. This way all the students had a chance to talk about their thoughts before getting it out on paper. I encouraged the kids to use the sentences frames as a guide, but to also use their own words. Finally, the kids were ready to write in their Science Notebook. I removed the colored cards with the answers, and just left the sentence frames for the students to use

Holiday Math Fact Game

Just in time for the holidays I found a Math Fact practice game with a holiday theme. The kids were super excited about it so I told them I would post it here.

http://www.abcya.com/christmas_lights_holiday_game_for_kids.htm