Spelling Words for the Week of January 27th

1.  me
2.mean
3.  bean
4. be
5. beet
6. feet
7. low
8.  road
9.  yes
10. one

1.  I ate a bean and a beet.
2.  Did you run a mile?

Challenge Words:
1.  until
2.  mile
3.  river
4.  car
5.  brown

Enrichment Words:
1.  product
2.  desert
3.  farther
4.  total
5.  sell
6.  wire
7.  rose
8.  cotton
9.  moves
10. spoke
11. rope
12. rules
13. fear
14. shore
15. throughout

Yesterday we experimented with thermometers.  I gave each child a thermometer, a cup of hot water and a cup of ice.  They experimented at their desks and discovered that the colder it is the lower the thermometer goes and the hotter it is the higher it goes.  It was a fun inquiry-based lesson and the students were excited to be scientists.  Sorry, I planned on taking some great photos but forgot to get the camera out.  Oops!

We have also been learning about fiction vs. non-fiction texts.  We are working on a book all about non-fiction that you will see come home very soon.  In addition, we have been ramping up our writing.  The students have perfected the format of narrative writing but now need to include details to make their writing more interesting.  This has been a hard concept for them to implement but we will keep practicing.  

This week we completed a Close Reading unit on the moon phases.  Close reading requires the reader to read closely to determine what the text says explicitly.  In this unit we read several books about the moon and then analyzed and compared two texts at a more in-depth level.  Our research question was: When you look at the Moon, how does the shape seem to change over time?  Our lessons combined observation and work with nonfiction texts and was designed to help students observe patterns of change and understand that although the shape of the Moon appears to change, it really remains the same.  This unit required the students to ask questions, develop and use models, analyze and interpret data and obtain, evaluate and communicate information.  At the conclusion of the unit the students had to reconstruct the pattern of how the Moon appears to change over time.  It was thrilling to watch the students independently organize and label the moon phases with most students needing no help at all.  This was an amazing unit that integrated science into the languages arts while teaching the students how to analyze non-fiction text.

 

Spelling Words for the Week of January 21st

1.  low

2.  bow

3.  row

4.  road

5.  soap

6.  boat

7.  wiggle

8.  middle

9.  get

10. them

1.  The boat is in the middle of the road.

2.  Get me a bar of soap.

Challenge Words:

1.  watch

2. color

3. face

14. wood

15. main

Enrichment Words:

1.  contain

2.  objects

3.  students

4.  turns

5.  clouds

6.  equal

7.  war

8.  value

9.  yard

10. Americans

11. beat

12. inch

13. walking

14. sugar

15. key

Spelling Words for the Week of January 13th
1.  middle
2.  fiddle
3.  wiggle
4.  giggle
5.  puddle
6.  cuddle
7.  fur
8.  bird
9.  not
10. were

1.  The boy jumped in the puddle.
2.  I am in the middle.

Challenge Words:
1. January
2. cold
3. winter
4. snowman
5. fun

Enrichment Words:
1.  January
2.  snowball
3.  snowflake
4.  fireplace
5.  ice
6.  coat
7.  sledding
8.  skiing
9.  revolve
10. gravity
11. phase
12 quarter moon
13. crescent moon
14. pattern
15. earth

Spelling Words for the Week of January 6th

1.  sir

2.  dirt

3.  bird

4.  burn

5.  fur

6.  her

7.  quit

8.  when

9.  what

10. so

1.  She has a burn on her arm.

2.  The bird sat in the dirt.

Challenge Words:

1.  idea

2.  fish

3.  mountain

4.  stop

5.  once

Enrichment Words:

1.  dad

2.  bread

3.  charge

4.  proper

5.  bar

6.  offer

7.  segment

8.  slave

9.  duck

10. instant

11. market

12. degree

13. populate

14. chick

15. dear

Pics from the engineering activity of constructing a gingerbread house.

 Pics from the Chemistry Show by Dr. Steffensen at SUU.