Science

After finishing our first investigation of magnetism, we moved on to an investigation of electricity.   First, students were asked to light a bulb using only a D-cell (battery), two wires and a light bulb.  After a little experimenting the whole class discovered how to make a circuit.  Next, students learned new scientific vocabulary words like component and energy source.

Reading

This week we continued our study of The Revolutionary War through nonfiction texts.  Students discovered that nonfiction texts are written in many different structures.  Some of the text structures that we discussed were descriptive, compare and contrast, and chronological.  Students learned how to, not only identify the different structures, but also how to organize their thoughts in graphic organizers.

 

Writing

This week in Writing Workshop, students began learning about information writing.  During this unit, students will take a topic that they know well, The Revolutionary War, and write several different information texts about different aspects of this war.  This week students learned how to plan for their writing, and how to effectively research their focused topics further.  Students picked a variety of fascinating topics to write about.  The classroom was abuzz with excitement as students researched and discovered things they never knew about The American Revolution!  I cannot wait to see the final product!

Important Dates:

• Friday, December 18th                      Pajama Day- Half Day
• December 19th- January 4th            Winter Break
• Tuesday, January 5th                         School Resumes