Dear 5B families, The year has officially come to an end. Your students are officially sixth graders! Wow! Where did the time go?!? Thank you so much for all of your support this year. And for entrusting me with your kids each day. I enjoyed each and every one of them--I will miss them all and they better come visit me! We packed a lot into the last two days of school this week. You will also find a few photos on the Photos page. Happy Summer!!! Independent Studies--Final Presentations Jocelyn wrote Haikus about each team. She also made delicious snacks in boat form! Ella C. studied the different parts of the boat. She also made a model of the boat out of wire with paper sails. Ben presented on the history of boat races around the world, specifically focusing on the first race around the world. Sidney studied the parts of the boat and made clay models of them. Josh wrote an original story, complete with images, and read it aloud to the class. Teaching We had our two final lessons from students this week! Josh taught us about coding, and we started to make a face. We learned a lot in 20 minutes, but weren't quite able to finish our faces! Khan Academy has a coding section, which the students have access to year round by logging in through their google account. Code away! On Tuesday Ella C. taught us how to play Gaga Ball. It was perfect timing as the class gets ready for middle school and the middle school recess yard! (Tear!) Best,
Rebecca I had a great last full week with my first fifth grade FA class! They have grown so much, not just physically, but emotionally and socially I have seen so much maturity in this class. On Friday the rising fifth grade class visited with me and Sarah Bookstein, and apparently they were scared by the work load and increased independence and expectations. The exiting fifth grade class barely showed any concerns about it, they just took it in stride (well, I do know there were some unhappy moments at home, especially at the beginning of the year). I have told them all that I truly hope they visit me when they are sixth graders! (And I might need them to give the rising fifth grade a pep talk!) We wrapped up a few activities and we even decided to take on one last project to conclude Journey to Topaz, which we will finish next week. Also, on Friday, we had two special visitors! Colleen came by with our daughter Joanna. She was pretty popular at recess :) She's 4.5 months now and getting so incredibly fun! Teaching! Hallie taught the class how to do cartwheels. Hallie is a skilled cartwheeler and flipper, as are a few other members of the class. It definitely pushed some members of our class outside of their comfort zones! We had two lessons because we ran into recess with the first lesson, and the second day students were feeling more confident to try it out. Some students switched to somersaults so they could participate within their safety comfort zones. Somersault and cartwheel races ensued on the middle school recess field...fitting :) The next day Ella W. taught us a different way to tie our shoes. It involved holding the laces with pinkies and a complicated crossing of laces. We will all need another lesson next week because it was tricky! Students did a great job sharing shoes if they were not wearing shoes with laces :) Buzzards Bay salt marsh field trip We went to a salt marsh on Buzzards Bay and tromped around the wet marshy land looking for crabs and other critters. We also learned how important salt marshes are for the environment, and how changing lands affect wildlife. We came back looking much muddier than when we left! I and a few other students even fell in or slid, and came back with very muddy legs or backsides! It was great fun, if a little bit smelly.! Authentic Graphing We are concluding our study of Journey to Topaz by graphing data about Japanese Internment. Students paired up to answer a question with data and a graph. These will be presented next week. Also, a big shout out to Jocelyn who brought in some relevant family photos and stories! She was sharing what we have been studying with family members and discovered that she has a relative who used to work as a fireman at the Internment Camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. She brought in copies of many photos and shared them with our class and Ms. Bookstein's class. Independent Study presentations Independent study presentations began this week! They have been working so hard on these investigations! We have heard from 7 students so far, and will finish the rest on Monday. Overall students reported that they really enjoyed this project, and everyone went through a journey in some way, whether it was realizing they didn't like what they were studying and changed their topic, learning something new, discovering that their project was harder than they thought, or finding a new way to look at their original idea. Onward to our last few days!
Cheers! Rebecca Dear 5B families, I can't believe this year is coming to a close! It has been such a wonderful first year for me. I feel so lucky to have gotten to know all of these kiddos as we journey through fifth grade together. Here is what we were up to during the penultimate week of fifth grade! Nature Writing Inspired by how much they enjoyed making nature art during the overnight, we tromped into the woods this week to become inspired by nature. Some students started stories, others poetry, and some focused more on drawings. A good time was had by all, and no one came out with itchy poisonous plants on their skin! Percents In math students were introduced to the idea of percents. We watched a few Khan Academy videos and put some notes into our Interactive Student Notebooks. They got the general idea! We won't have time to do much with percents this year, but I want to make sure that when they see percents in sixth grade, that they aren't a completely foreign concept. Teaching! Asher taught us how to play a card game this week. It is called "Trash"! He enlisted help from Ben and they then went around and helped groups play correctly. It was fun! Japanese Internment In connection with our reading of Journey to Topaz, we were joined by Ms. Bookstein's class to watch a PBS documentary called We'll Meet Again. It is a short TV series about individuals looking for someone who had a strong influence on their lives, yet they have lost touch for many years. It goes into why someone is looking for this person, as well as how to trace someone, including looking at birth certificates, death certificates, and the census. We watched an episode about an 85 year old woman named Reiko who was put in a Japanese internment camp as a young girl. She had a dear friend named Mary Frances who stood up for her and continued to be her friend, despite Mary Frances's family telling her she couldn't be friends with someone of Japanese descent. Reiko and Mary Frances lost touch around middle school, but she remembered Mary Frances after all this time, and still told stories about her to children at the museum where she volunteers to speak about Japanese Internment. If you're interested in watching this episode or more of the series at home, they are available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon Prime for a couple of dollars per episode. Until next week: the ultimate week of school!!!
Rebecca Dear 5B families, It has been a busy week! I feel as if I can feel the end descending upon us, and I'm trying to squeeze in the last bit of learning that we can! Next week is our last full normal week before the end of the school year. Wow, has this year gone by quickly! Below is a bit more information on what we've been up to recently, but first a couple of announcements: -Blue & Gray Day was postponed until Friday, May 25. Parents are invited to watch the last event that will happen on the field around 2:15, followed by an optional early dismissal at 2:30. If parents choose to dismiss their student at 2:30, please check in with their teacher (on the field) before leaving. Parents who are unable to attend may pick their student up at the regular dismissal time. -You will find field trip photos on the photos page, along with most of the Outside the Classroom photos! I still need to upload some photos from the last group on Giants Ladder. -We have an afternoon field trip to Buzzards Bay on Tuesday, May 29. Teaching We had several students teach us how to do something recently! Charlotte taught us how to draw a flower. Ben taught us how to make an aerodynamic paper airplane. Then we all went outside to fly them! Kadian taught us how to draw a tent, just like the ones we took camping! Wilson taught us about throwing footballs. Multiplying and Dividing with Decimals This week fifth graders learned how to multiply and divide decimals. I love teaching this unit every year, because in the beginning of fifth grade, students are very intimidated by multiplication and division problems with decimals if they happen to come across them. When they learn that it's actually not so tricky, it's like a door into harder math opens for them as they accomplish a task they thought was so hard not so long ago. They wrote the steps into their Interactive Student Notebooks and I reminded them that these notebooks can go with them to sixth grade as reference tools for when they review the same topics in sixth grade math. They agreed that was a good idea! Portfolio Showcase On Wednesday we welcomed families into the fifth grade rooms for our Portfolio Showcase, where students presented in small groups on such topics as Home of the Brave, independent study projects, signposts, renewable energy, lattice multiplication, 50/50 Day, and so much more! Here are a few photos from the event. There are many more on the photos page! Journey to Topaz Through our reading of Journey to Topaz, quotes from those interned, and looking at photographs from the time period, the students have noticed that some of the ways the Japanese were treated during WWII was either meant to or had the effect of stripping them of their humanity. They helped make a chart with some examples. I can tell that they are starting to get more interested in the book and angry about how American citizens were treated without any evidence. I hope this passion continues with them throughout their lives and helps them speak out against injustice when they encounter it. Here is a link to some striking Dorothea Lange photographs and quotes from Japanese Americans who were interned. Until next week!
Cheers, Rebecca Happy May 5B! It has been a beautiful and warm week here! The trees are blooming and the class can't get enough of being outside. The only downside: ticks are appearing. One student even found a tick crawling on another student's face on Monday during lunch! Ticks are one of the only things I'm grossed out by, so I'm hoping they stay outside the classroom from now on! I have heard (and can see from my already over-flowing calendar), that May is a busy month here at Friends, and one that will go by quickly! We have two field trips coming up, the overnight, the Spring Concert, and Grey and Blue day. When do we have time for class??? Don't worry! We still have a few math units to get through (multiplying and dividing decimals, percents, and graphs and probability), a book to finish (Journey to Topaz), and the continuation of our study of government. So we will be BUSY in 5B! Journey to Topaz We began Journey to Topaz this week, a book that is near and dear to my heart. Growing up in California, learning about Japanese internment during WWII was a core part of my elementary curriculum. When I moved to Massachusetts I discovered that a lot of people had not heard of this piece of American history. The class was quick to make connections to other times in American history when a group of people are feared or blamed when someone of the same nationality, ethnicity, or religion does something that causes harm to the United States. As they read the book, I expect them to become frustrated with this piece of history. One of the main reasons I appreciate studying history is to look for patterns, but I also believe that we can learn from and improve upon mistakes we have made. For example, we read an article about the Executive Order that President Trump passed in early 2017 banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. I expect the class to see that sometimes we do not learn from our mistakes, and I hope that they also connect this book to the school mission to be a responsible citizen who promotes honesty, commitment, and respect for others. On Thursday the class read an article about Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American man who went into hiding instead of being detained and sent to an internment camp. The article does a good job of connecting recent political events (Arab American immigration in 2017) to Japanese internment. Several students were surprised that history had repeated itself so closely. They were also surprised by the conditions of the camps (which we will be learning more about), and that the government would treat its American citizens this way (about two-thirds of the Japanese people put into concentration camps were born in the U.S.) Teaching! On Monday Sidney taught us how to make origami cats. They were a big hit (even though the class is primarily dog people!). On Tuesday Austa taught us how to pass a soccer ball. I was mostly a swimmer in high school, and I never really learned how to pass a ball properly. I learned a lot! And my feet got pretty muddy, too :) On Thursday Phoebe taught us how to draw a wave! Most of us would have loved a wave to wash over us this week as it started to heat up! Ratios We concluded our Ratios unit with a test of sorts. Because we shortened the unit, I shortened the test. Students had only 8 problems to solve, and I pasted them around the room so they could get a little movement while solving the problems. They thought it was a pretty great way to take a test :) Grandfriends Day It was so wonderful meeting so many Grandfriends on Friday! They had Morning Meeting with us, played Zoom Eek and Night at the Museum, then went off to Science, and concluded the day with Found Poetry. For the poetry activity we used pages from books we have read over the course of the year to create poems. We made sure to get many photos, and you can find them all on the Photos tab. Best,
Rebecca Hello 5B families! I've got a nice long update for you this week! And a TON of photos! A few announcements:
Home of the Brave This week we finished Home of the Brave. The class agreed that finishing the book was very bittersweet. Their responses to me in their Reader's Notebooks have been overwhelmingly positive, and they all agree that we should continue reading this book with future fifth grade classes. Every time I read this book I find more and more parts that I love, new ways of looking at the world, or a piece of figurative language that I missed. Here are a few excerpts of what they wrote about Home of the Brave:
We now have a few copies of two other novels about Sudanese refugees, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park and The Red Pencil (also written in poetry!) by Andrea Davis Pinkney. A number of kids have borrowed these, and they are making their way around the class, so keep an eye out for them at home. We also are working with Ms. Bookstein's class on posters representing the 5 proverbs that begin each section of the book. They worked in groups of 5 or 6, and each group had 1 proverb which they had to represent 3 different ways. Each group made 3 posters, 1 explaining and showing the literal meaning of the proverb, 1 explaining and showing the meaning of the proverb as it relates to the book, and 1 on the message we can glean from the proverb. The proverbs are: When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. You only make a bridge when there is a river. One doesn't forego sleep because of the possibility of nightmares. When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. A sandstorm passes; the stars remain. You can see photos of their progress below, first discussing and planning, then sketching and finally adding color. They will present their posters on Monday. Found Poetry Ms. Bookstein taught me about Found Poetry and we tried it in our class. It was a big hit! Basically, each child gets a piece of paper with one page from a book (it can also be done with magazine articles). They read over the page and look for what words pop out at them. Then they circle those words and create a poem out of just a few words that are on the page. Below you can see some photos of how they started off with the circling of words, and then how they decorated their poems. They really enjoyed this activity, and will get to repeat it with their Grandfriends next week! Creative Writing On Tuesday we joined Ms. Randenberg and her class for a creative writing activity. Ms. Randenberg showed an image for 1 minute and students had to write down as much as they could remember about the image. Students shared what they remembered and it was cool to see what different brains remembered. After discussing the image, everyone got to write a story, using the image as inspiration. We haven't done as much creative writing recently, so it was a really nice addition. The class said they really enjoyed this activity and are looking forward to doing it again next week. Learning and Teaching We are beginning a new activity in Morning Meeting as we conclude the year (already!?!). Each student is going to have a chance to teach the class how to do something. I started off by teaching the class how to draw an elephant...from the back :) Then Jocelyn taught us how to make origami paper boats. They can stand up on their own! I can already tell that soon our class is going to be decorated in little origami boats! 50/50 Day As a school school community we have been discussing 50/50 day and what we can do to make our world more equal across genders. We discussed this in the context of math, as we looked at a variety of statistics. We looked at percentages of men and women in professions. We also looked at countries that have more women than men. During our discussion, women in politics around the world also came up. Our Congress is about 80% male, but our country is only 50% male. However, there are some countries whose governments show much more equality, with Rwanda being the most diverse in terms of gender. Below are the articles and the video that we looked at. Video from Let It Ripple about what it would be like if men and women were represented more equally Article comparing men and women in a variety of professions. The class definitely picked up on the patterns of more women in lower paying jobs and more men in higher paying jobs, as well as a higher percentage of men in positions of more power. Article on men and women in government around the world. Article about 10 countries where women outnumber men. This was also a nice introduction to percents, and we connected it to our current unit on ratios by finding equivalent ratios and simplifying them to create a reduced ratio. For example, if 81% of Congress is men, then 19% of Congress is women. We can round this to 80% and 20%, and say that in Congress there is a ratio of 80 men for every 20 women, which can be reduced to 8 men to 2 women, or 4 men to 1 woman, 4:1. The class overall agreed that this was unfair. We can do better! On Thursday we had a presentation by biology students in Isabelle's dad's class. The 5th grade was lucky enough to learn about several topics in immunology, focusing on animals. We learned about why frogs are dying and how to help them, why the flu shot is important, why there are more ticks after a warm winter, why bees are dying and how to help them, why sleep is important, and why polar bears are dying. The presenters were a little nervous to present to fifth graders, but everyone (fifth graders included!) did great :) I hope you all have a great weekend!
Best, Rebecca Dear 5B families, This week during Morning Meetings we have been discussing what makes a good conversation. So far we have talked about how when you join a conversation, it's helpful to sometimes just listen and then ask questions about what people are talking about. The class agreed that asking questions shows that you're really interested in getting to know someone better, and that it feels good when people ask questions that show they want to get to know you. This would be a great discussion to continue at home! Academically we have had a mostly uneventful week in 5B. We continued reading and enjoying Home of the Brave. We are more than halfway through and are currently learning about bravery and how while we might think Kek is brave, Kek is going through an internal struggle and does not feel brave. We also watched the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, about the Lost Boys of Sudan, boys just like Kek. I emailed a link to the documentary last week, but it is also below. The class has a Reader's Notebook assignment due on Tuesday where they have to write about both the book and the documentary. We also concluded our area of triangles unit with an assessment. I was able to get the class their corrected tests back quickly, so they already have them and corrections are due (on a separate sheet of paper or using a colored pen) by Wednesday. Our next math unit is ratios, and Friday we introduced the topic. This is a pretty short unit. The best ways to help your students with this unit are:
I realized I didn't take any photos this week! Clearly next week we will need to do more exciting things that inspire photo taking :) Next Friday I will be absent for my sister in-law's wedding in Maryland. The class was overjoyed (and then complimentary to me so that I wouldn't take it personally lol) that Chrissy Farias will be subbing :) Best, Rebecca Dear 5B families, It has been a busy four day week! Students in 5B have been delving into the area of triangles and breaking down shapes into more manageable parts to find the area. They have been reading, sharing, and discussing poetry. They have been working on their independent studies. And they have been enjoying reading Home of the Brave. I asked students to share with me what they have enjoyed about the book so far, and the most common answer so far is that they were surprised they enjoyed a book written entirely in poetry! I can't say I'm surprised, since that's the typical response I get every year that I've taught this book. What's extra great though, is that several kids in the class have started searching out other chapter books written in poetry from the library, and Mrs. Griffin never lets us down with good books! A few heads ups:
Government On Tuesday students were asked to respond to the following statements with answers of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. Then they had a chance to share their thoughts and agree or disagree with others. They are always a respectful class when they are sharing their ideas, and they didn't let me down during this discussion. Students used examples from their lives or things they have heard from family or the news, and some students changed their opinions as we discussed. Most students saw grey areas with the statements instead of taking an absolute view. It took the class a little while to get into it at first, and only a few people were sharing, but once they got going they didn't want to stop. They wanted to keep talking when I had to cut them off after 30 minutes and 3 question. They asked if we could continue to discuss more another day, and of course I said yes! These were the questions:
After our discussion I asked the class to read an article called "Rich whites and poor students of color more and more separated in schools," which was published in 2016 in the Washington Post. The class was overall surprised by the article. For some students there was a misunderstanding that this was not legal segregation, but a more natural segregation caused by the prices of homes and families moving to areas with better schools. We discussed the article from the lens of real and ideal and the list of 10 statements above. They made a lot of deep and thoughtful connections. We have a very compassionate and social justice oriented class <3 They also convinced me that we should hold this discussion outside, and since it was sunny and "warm" on Thursday during our last period and didn't require a whiteboard, I relented. They overall did a great job outside, and I'm sure we can repeat this more as the weather continues to improve! Poetry! The class has been really delving into poetry! On Monday and Tuesday they had a scavenger hunt where they had to look for different types of poems, or figurative language, or authors in my poetry books. They read a lot of different poems and then came to the rug to share a favorite. Most were favorites because they connected to them in some way. For example, Austa shared a poem about spring and liked it because her birthday is in spring. Hallie shared a poem about dogs because she loves dogs (in case you didn't know!). Ella C. shared a poem about mosquitos and liked how it reminded her about her own attitude about mosquitos (that they are pests!). Some students liked poems that rhymed or helped them visualize. Ben liked a poem by Langston Hughes that used the word mangled because it helped him picture what was happening in the poem. Area of rectangles and triangles In math, I assigned table groups 2 area problems. Students had to use logic and their knowledge of squares, rectangles, and triangles to break apart or take away pieces of shapes. It's hard work! For the most part they started off fairly unsure about how to attack the problems, but they had such a great attitude and just kept trying to look at the problems in different ways and listen to their group members to see if they could understand and expand on their ideas. Of course then I made them present their problems to the class. Practice those public speaking skills and that math vocabulary! I continue to appreciate that when students come up, even if they have solved a problem incorrectly, they keep at it and listen to me and the rest of the class as we try to problem solve and work to get the correct answer together. That's what math is all about! Great work! Best,
Rebecca Happy Friday, 5B families! This week's newsletter is brought to you by several members of our class! I asked if some of them wanted to help write the newsletter, and there was an enthusiastic response! I love the ownership they are taking! Can you believe they are almost 6th graders?!? Where does the time go? Anyway, without further ado, I bring you 5B's newsletter! Best, Mrs. HK and 5B Field Trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, brought to you by Kadian W. Agnew. This week we went to the whaling museum where we were greeted by a tour guide. Then we were brought upstairs and went to the Lagoda. We learned who owned it and how it was made inside the museum. After that we we went to the bay. Next we learned about the names of the whales. Then we learned about the first explorer who came to North America. Finally we learned that the Quakers were the first settlers in America. My favorite part was when we went outside and looked at the bay and learned that if lucky, whalers would have tons of barrels with whale oil. Kip Bordelon Presentation on the Constitution, by Sidney Torres and Jocelyn Cooney Hello readers, earlier this week there was a wonderful presentation on history with a person who’s called Mr, Bordelon and now we will tell you more. The Main object that he focused on was the untold history of many people that deserved a right to speak up for their freedom. One of the stories he told was about three men there names were John, Oliver and Victor. They were all indentured servants and had enough and ran away for freedom but they were caught when the owner found out that they were gone he looked for them and succeeded in finding them they went to court, at court the judge sentenced Oliver and Victor 30 lashed in public and 5 more years in the indentured servant but john got 30 lashed and his whole life as an indentured servent the first slave but the catch is that John was black and Oliver and Wictor were white. Can you guess what famous person John is relative to……….. President Obama !!!!! We enjoyed Mr. Bordelon presentation about the untold people of the world I hope that you enjoyed this story and that everyone should have a voice. Algebra, by Josh Suprenaut Recently we have worked on algebra in math. Now, I know that algebra is commonly misinterpreted being a boring long process that will never help you later in life, but I believe that is wrong, and I will show you why! Algebra allows you to change, and insert new numbers into the same equation. Without realizing it, we use it all the time! Even when we were younger we had problems where we had to find the missing number. We’ve been working with algebra our whole life and never even realized it! Area of Triangles, by Charlotte Milligan and Austa Sard This week in math we are studying the Area Of a Triangle and the area of a rectangle. The area of a triangle is half of the area of a rectangle. You get the area of a rectangle by multiplying the base and the height. That formula is A=bh then divide by 2 to get the area of the triangle. If there is no unit then write unit squared. Right now we are learning about a right triangle and other types of triangles. We hope to enjoy this new unit. You can see the pages of the math notebook that explains why this formula works. Kek's Creative Words in Home of the Brave, by Asher Pinkerton and Wilson Morrissey In the book 5B is reading the main character is Kek, a refugee from a war in Sudan, Africa. He comes to the United States of America with no prior knowledge of the more progressed tech we have here. He comes up with his own names for things and it is very fun to guess--with context--what Kek is referring to. Now we would like you to have that fun so we have a game for you to play. This game is a guessing game, we will give context, Keks creative word and you can guess what Keks is trying to say. Answers at the end of the document. The first thing we would like you to guess is TV machine. Kek walks into his aunt's home in Minnesota and he sees a TV machine and says, “How can you have more you have a TV machine?” The next one is a don't move belt. Kek is in a car and he sees something--a cow--and he wants to get out of the car. The driver stops and the text says, ‘I twist in my seat. The don’t move belt across my chest pulls back. The last one is a double whammy, we want you to guess 2!!! They are a Magic water pot and a flying boat. Kek's cousin leads him to a tiny room. Kek points to the magic water pot like the one on the flying boat.
The class also looked at task cards to practice finding figurative language independently. Answer key to Kek's Creative Words:
television= TV machine seat belt = don't move belt toilet =Magic water Pot airplane = flying boat Hello 5B families! It is finally starting to look just a bit like Spring! I caught these flowers right outside on the Beech Tree Terrace. I always love when the outside just comes alive with color as everything starts to bloom. Something I didn't grow up with in California where we don't have real seasons. A few important announcements: -There is a vocabulary list on Quizlet that students can start studying. There will be a quick quiz on the words next Friday. -The algebra math test is on Monday afternoon. We have spent all week reviewing the material and I have been reminding students that it is their responsibility to ask for help if they are confused, and also to make corrections to the work I hand back in order to ensure they understand the material. Fostering independence in these almost middle schoolers! They were all reminded multiple times to take home any materials (ISN, workbook, packet, HWs) over the weekend that could help them review for the test. -On Tuesday afternoon (April 3) we are going on a field trip back to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. We will only be there in the afternoon, so there will be no changes in terms of lunch. -Parent teacher conferences will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 11 and all day Friday, April 13. You can sign up outside the classroom or email me to set up a time. These are optional conferences, and they are without your students. -Ms. Goldsmith and Ms. Cogliano are looking for help hanging artwork for Arts and Poetry Night. They will be hanging artwork on Friday, April 13. This is the same day as parent-teacher conferences. There will be child care in the library. Now onto our activities this week! Math We are concluding our unit on algebra with a test on Monday. The class has done incredibly well with these concepts, especially with some of the more challenging concepts of solving for a variable when you have an algebraic expression with several terms. These are concepts that I certainly didn't learn until middle school, but the more practice they have with these concepts, the easier they will be later on. Below is the most recent foldable we created. On their test they will be expected to know the terms: coefficient, variable, constant, and term. In order to review for the test, we mixed it up with Ms. Bookstein's class on Thursday, choosing from a "menu" of a variety of activities. The class enjoyed solving algebra problems and practicing order of operations in a variety of ways, including games, matching, task cards, and puzzles. Poetry We are jumping into our poetry unit by both reading and writing poetry this week. We were visited three times by poet Lynn Hoopes, who has an amazing way of pulling poetry out of the class. I think they are a poetic group to begin with, but the writing that came out of them this week is just even more phenomenal! They've also all been open to editing and revising multiple times. Today Lynn taught them about taking out little words to improve the flow. I'm sure they're looking forward to sharing their writing at Arts and Poetry Night in a few weeks. Below are the photos of the writing process that Lynn took them on. The class also started reading one of my favorite books, Home of the Brave by Katherine Patterson. This book, written entirely in poems, is about a young boy named Kek who is a refugee from Sudan. In order to better understand the story, we have also been talking about what a refugee is and what types of events cause some people to flee their home countries. It's a beautifully written book, moving and emotional. I hope you all have a wonderful three day weekend. Best, Rebecca |