Yeah! I am back up and running!

Sorry for the delay in blog posts. The internet was down at my house as the company evidently cut the fiber while splitting it for new houses being built in my development. However, after figuring out the issue, they were quick to resolve it. I am just happy to not be running to school late at night or extreamly early in the morning to get a few things done before my lovely tax accountant (my husband) is off to work. Let me rephrase that. I am every excited to not be going to school in my pajamas at 3 am to get a few things done so he can be to work by 5 am or back in around midnight as he would come home around 10 or 11 pm. Yeah for internet at my house and A LOT OF COFFEE! Ok, enough about me.. on to the amazing learning taking place in our classroom.

This month for our morning meeting we have been focusing on having a growth mindset. We are actually using the letters of growth mindset and discussing an example of it each day. It looks something like this:
G- set Goals                                                M- be Motivated
R- Respect yourself                                     I- show Initiative
O- be Optimistic                                         N- pay atteNtion to detail
W- We all make mistakes                           D- have Determination
T- have persisTence                                    S- be reSilient
H- show Hard work                                    E- be confidEnt
                                                                    T- show Tenacity

In case you are interested, I am linking the slides I created for the morning meeting for the word GROWTH, I will share the mindset ones after we are done using them.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15y6RMnkREY8kwPF82GFH7w3oVSVxGntxpeZsaatEzqg/edit?usp=sharing

Reading- During shared reading these past few weeks we have really been focusing on some of the skill which will be assessed on our next District Common Assessment (DCA). We are looking at how to find the main idea and supporting details from an informational text. We are also looking at how to form a research question and use the text to help us make inferences. A lot of the stories we have read lately are little short non-fiction selections about various topics. The kids are enjoying all the facts we are discovering. Especially about real-life dragons.

Writing- We have been working away on expository writing the last few weeks and finishing up our paragraphs from our Slavery/ Segregation unit. Everyone in our class has worked so hard to write 5 paragraphs using facts from social studies to write about slavery, the underground railroad, ending slavery, segregation, and reconstruction. I can not wait for you to see them as part of a book presentation they have been making on the computers. 

Math- We recently took our math DCA over solving multiple step word problems with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This is a skill we will continue to work on the rest of the year as it was very developmentally demanding to many students. We are now starting to learn about fractions, the properties of them, how we can measure with them, adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators, as well as comparing fractions. Students seem to be catching on to fractions rather quickly.

Science- We are just finishing up our current Physics of Sound science unit. The students loved this unit. There were a lot of hands on experiments to determine how we could use our scientific minds to change the pitch or volume of an instrument. We are currently working on making an instrument with recycled materials. These will be used in music class when we are finished with them. We have proof to show how fun our learning can be!

The battery is running low on my computer so I will share a few valentine and celebration pictures.

Also here is a link from Mr. Jackson to help your child practice for the musical on March 24th. Mr. Jackson has also posted the videos of the songs and dances on the Crest Specials Facebook page.
https://docs.google.com/…/1AmHM8aPwPnA6pg5VpDOHGvFOSMG…/edit


Have a wonderful evening!
Mrs. Yuska