Right Back At It!

A Week in Review

April 15 - 19

 

Welcome back from Spring Break! We got right back into our groove, even with a week off! We've been busy this week, here's what we've been up to:

 

Virtues Awards:

Alexandria B. has earned a Virtues Award for showing the virtues of compassion and helpfulness. She took time to help a classmate find their instrument for band. Thank you Alexandria!

 

Tim P. has earned a Virtues Award for showing the virtue of diligence. Tim works hard to complete his assignments with quality work and turn them in on time! Way to go Tim!

Reading:

We've continued our read aloud, Johnny Tremain, with Mrs. Bethel's (Ms. Holmes) class. This historical fiction novel is aligning with our study of Colonial Boston and the time period leading up to the Revolutionary War. We use read aloud as an avenue for modeling comprehension strategies, as well as, asking higher level thinking questions to get students thinking critically about the text.



Writing:
Our last writing assessment of the year is approaching. Students will need to write a persuasive essay! In order to guide my instruction, students are working on a "pre-test" by writing a persuasive essay. The assignment was quite open-ended. Students self-selected their topic and audience, I will use their writing to help me plan lessons based on their strengths with persuasive writing and areas of need. The topics they've chosen range from asking their parents for something (a horse, a trip to Disneyland) to writing to Mrs. Hamilton, asking for longer recesses!

MATH

This week in Math we began Unit 8: Algebra, Functions, and Graphs! We started by learning how to: use exponents and the Order of Operations to simplify expressions and solve equations. We also completed prime factorization of composite numbers and learned how to use the prime factorization to find ALL of the factors for a given number. It was quite a bit of new information that took a lot of focus and practice but students are off to a wonderful start in this unit!

 

SCIENCE          

Barley, clover, radishes, peas, and corn, OH MY! We got to start our first investigation this week in our Environments Unit! Students are determining what type of environmental factors best support a healthy living condition for their plants. Each group has been in charge of planting and growing seeds in a terrarium, and many of them are beginning to sprout!

 

SOCIAL STUDIES    

In our StoryPath Social Studies unit, we learned about the Boston Massacre. Students reacted to the events through discussion in a town meeting and by reading different accounts of this historical event. We had rich discussions about the event and how deciding who was to blame (colonists or British soldiers) was not an easy question to answer. We ended the week by drafting up friendly letters telling family back home in Britain about the Boston Massacre. These letters will help me assess what students have learned.

 

MSP

As we get ready to take the MSP, students will begin receiving MSP practice packets for Reading, Science, and Math. Students are to complete them at home and return to school so we can discuss answers together.

As you can see, we had a full week! I am looking forward to next week when hopefully this rain will go away and we can enjoy some sunshine!

Have a wonderful weekend J

~Mrs. Hatlestad

 

Upcoming Events:

23- April- Spring session of Lego Club begins

23- April- Talent Show Tryouts

26- April-UW Engineering Day Field trip

03-May- Talent Show

13-May-MSP - MATH

14-May-Crash Field trip

15-May-MSP - READING

20-May-MSP - SCIENCE

22-May - Garbology Pacific Science Center session (in our classroom)

27-May-No School in observance of Memorial Day

07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field

19-June-Last Day of School