Peek at My Week {Feb. 24}

Hi Friends!  Just thought I'd peek out from the avalanche of papers I am trying to get scored before report cards and conferences next week and give you 

It is going to be a topsy turvy kind of a week as we try to wrap up multiple end of the trimester projects and get ready for our Genius Hour presentation on Friday.

In Social Studies we are in the middle of our Civil War simulation.  In our current episode students are going into battle for the first time.  Each student has been randomly assigned to either the North or the South, as well as, a specific regiment.  For each day's episode they have to make decisions pertaining to the events of the day.  Depending what each group decides to do and how their roll of the die turns out different things can happen to them.  For example they may be injured and lose a limb or die from disease.  At the end of each day's events students write a journal entry describing their trials as a solider.  This is our second simulation of the year (we did the American Revolution earlier in the year) and the students LOVE them!  I also have the Pioneers simulation which is similar to the Oregon Trail.  The books says it should take 5 days to complete the simulation but it usually takes me around 7 class period because  I try to add extra bits like short video clips, pictures or other resources to help make it even more real to the students.  If you are looking for fun way to engage students while studying our country's history I highly recommend you look into these simulations.

We are continuing to work on long division in math.  Slow and steady seems to be the key on this topic with my group.  They  really enjoyed putting together the first part of our Division Lap books (see last week's post) and we will be adding more to that this week also.

In writing we are finishing up our descriptive writing.  To wrap this up, we are doing a partner project incorporating a little art.  To begin with, each student had to draw a monster of their own creation (They could not draw a monster that already exists from games or TV) and they had to keep it secret from anyone around them.  The next step is to write a detailed description of their creation which they will give to their partner who then will try to draw their monster.  After each partner has drawn the monsters based on the descriptions, they will compare their drawing with the original picture.  I hope to post some pictures of the comparisons when we are done.

On Friday we will be hosting our first Genius Hour presentation for our families.  I am planning another post on that topic when we finish up :o)

Well, that's my week for the most part.  Now back to those papers that need correcting.  Be sure to link up with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings and see what others are up to for the week.  Have a great week!

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?

Peek at My Week {1-13-14}

I am super excited to link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at my Week linky.  So far so good on my blogging resolution-I have surpassed my one post per week and 5 weekly comments goals!  It probably helped that we only had school 2 1/2 days last week thanks to Mother Nature and the polar vortex hanging over the MidWest.  Sure hope I never see another one of those!!

Any-whooo.  I am looking forward to a full week.  It will be a busy one.

Monday and Wednesday we are running shortened schedules. We have an S.K.A.T.E. anti-bullying assembly Monday afternoon and professional development on Wednesday.

We are wrapping up our animal research reports.  Most of the class is in great shape, so we should be able to publish them on post them to our classroom website on Friday.  I have decided to abandon our classroom blog (poor thing hasn't gotten any action this year with everything else going on) and will be posting our reports to the class website.  Not 100% how I want to put them up, but still have time to play with it a little.

We'll be starting our new Social Studies unit on the Southeast.  I am excited for the kids to try our the new foldables I created to put in their notebooks.  Crossing my fingers they will work as well as my example.

Over course the dreaded part of my week will be starting our Winter Fountas and Pinnell testing.  It takes so long and I hate losing the instructional time especially this time of year.  Oh well.  While I am busy with the testing, students who would normally be meeting with me will be working on the task cards for author's purpose and informational text from Rachel Lynette .  This is a good time for them to work on these two areas before Iowa Assessments next month.

Friday we will be holding session two of our Genius Hour.  I am super excited about this new project time!  The class is to have their two inquiry questions and possible project ideas for approval.  I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Well, that's my school week.  On the home front things look relatively quiet only one wrestling meet for the week.  Here's to warmer temperatures, less winter yuck and regular routines!  Have a great week!