Peek at My Week {Feb. 17}....

Happy Monday all!  Thought since I had some extra time today I'd post a quick Peek at My Week and link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly linky:
(It has been a bit since I've been able to link up here...not that my week's haven't been ultra exciting between snow days and state testing.)  Anyway... here's

This week will be a short week for me for a couple reasons: 

 

Today was a snow day.  Yep our seventh for the school year.  As of today we are now getting out in June :'o(  This is the fifth grade door where staff usually comes in.  That drift was to my knees this afternoon when I went in.  When I came back out an hour later my footprints were already filling in.  Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

Two words....STATE WRESTLING!

My son Jason is the 220 weight wrestler.  The team made it for State Duals which begin on Wednesday in Des Moines, so we are heading down to watch.  He was a district qualifier this year as well. He placed third since they only take the top 2 places at each weight, he doesn't get to wrestle for the individual state tournament.  All the boys have done an outstanding job this season.  I am looking forward to seeing them in the big arena.  Best wishes to all of them!!!

So what will be going on in my classroom while I'm am missing this week you ask?  Here is a quick look:

Students will be taking part in the first lesson of the Junior Achievement: Regions unit taught by one of our community members.  This is an awesome program that brings business people into the classroom to teach for five lessons.  In fourth grade the unit is on Regions which ties in great with our social studies.  Students learn about products, supply and demand, using the resources and running a business.

We are also going to be digging into our historical fiction novel units this week.  Since we are also studying the Civil War in social studies at this time, I try to use books that fit this time period as well.  My high and on level students will begin reading Freedom Crossing by Margaret Goff Clark.  It is a great story about the Underground Railroad.  I love how students can really see that Laura is a dynamic character as her views change throughout the course of the story.  My two lower groups will be reading a couple shorter books- A. Lincoln and Me and Follow the Drinking Gourd.  We will be working on summarizing as well as identifying why these books fit the historical fiction genre.

In math we are backing up a bit to "restart" division.  I don't like the way our series Every Day Math jumps into long division.  Most of students were confused last week when we tried it, so we are going to back up and try again (Kind of like getting around in the snow today LOL).  We are going to use Elizabeth from Fun in 4B's awesome Common Core Division Lapbook. Check it out at her TPT store.  I think it is going to make a HUGE difference to my kids!  Plus it will provide a great resource for the rest of the unit and later.

Well, that's a peek at my week.  What's going on in yours?