Dear Parents,
What an exciting week this has been! How interesting that our mock election on Monday predicted the actual presidential election results. We had 6 votes for Clinton, 6 votes for Trump, and 2 for Johnson (we neglected to put the Green party candidate on our ballot). I've been impressed by the way the students were civil in our previous class discussions and have respected each others' views this week by leaving the election results at the door and not discussing them in class.
This week we also have done some interesting investigations. We tested whether a flat, rolled, or rolled and waxy leaf would hold water the best and help a plant survive a drought. We determined which seeds were most likely to be eaten by a bird flying over depending on the color of the soil. We explored the best human adaptations - our brains and thumbs. Finally, we explored which adaptations help animals survive in the arctic and will do a related investigation next Tuesday morning.
On Wednesday, all the students got to try out our new Surface Pros! We will get 5 of them for our class in addition to the computers and iPads we already have which will put us at one device for each student which is wonderful. On Thursday and Friday, the students did a nice job on Write Score - reading the passages carefully, then typing their essays thoughtfully and referring back to the texts.
Along with our figurative language exploration in reading, we have been reading some of Aesop's fables and other folktales. Some of our students have become rock stars at recognizing figurative language and using context clues from the text to figure out a character's motives and point of view in the fables and folktales! Please continue to read nightly with your child for at least 20 minutes. Having them read a few pages, then you reading a few pages is a wonderful bedtime routine that gives you the chance to talk about your child's book and increase their fluency.
Thanks for all of your support!!
Jenny M-G
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