I hope you are enjoying this beautiful, snowy Monday as we honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King. We spent a good part of last week talking about Dr. King, and it was impressive to hear how much your students already know about the Civil Rights movement. They conveyed a profound sense of respect and admiration for the accomplishments of many, including Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges.
In addition to the Civil Rights movement, we also continued our vocabulary study in ELA. With only two words remaining on our list, we will have a vocabulary test next Monday, January 22nd. This test will cover the words from our first two vocabulary quizzes as well as the six words we added after the winter break. Words and definitions are listed in the back of each student’s ELA notebook, and all 19 words should be reviewed for Monday’s test. We will hold our classroom spelling bees in ELA tomorrow, 1/16. Both a winner and an alternate from each ELA class will be chosen to advance to the school bee on 1/22.
In science, we have taken an in-depth look at the many plant and animal species of the rainforest, and each student has adopted a species to research. This will lead us into an introduction of taxonomy as we work together this week to classify the species we have chosen. We are also taking a closer look at the amount of paper we use in the classroom each day as part of our response to our Green Challenge, Use Less Paper. We encourage you to continue this conversation with your children and talk about how your family uses paper at home as well. Even small changes can make a big difference!
Mrs. Flaig has been a great addition to our classroom as our new student teacher. Working with small groups in writing and reading as well as assisting students at study hall and during independent work time in science, she has truly jumped in with both feet. Mrs. Flaig is preparing to begin a Literature Circle unit with both ELA classes this week, and she is excited to get started. Your students will be choosing from a list of three to four book titles and will be divided into groups of 4-5. Each of these small groups will form a “Lit Circle” in which they will explore the book they are reading together and share their thoughts and ideas with each other.