Action-Packed Week!

Where to start?  How about the marshmallow team-building activity?  Some groups worked well together, while other groups...well...let's just say they learned how challenging it can be to work with others.

Here we see our class doing a bit of sorting and cleaning of their desks-

A few students from our class presented original poems to the entire school at our all school assembly on Friday.  Pictured below are Annika, Grace, and Rowan-

During our math workshop on Friday, we had a bracket style tournament to decide a champion.  Students raced head-to-head on a multiplying fractions snowmobile racing game.  Students faced off until a winner was decided.  Our final two in the championship was Annika and Will.  Annika just edged out Will for the victory in an intense race!

Our final update for the week comes from Mrs. V's art classroom.  Students were working on beautiful water color paintings of a birch tree scenery.  Take a look below!

Charlotte

Kaitlyn

Many Updates!

J15 has been hard at work as our first semester comes to a close.  Report cards will be going home soon and please keep in mind that grades reflect student work done throughout the entire semester.

As a reminder, it is so important to check your planner against our classroom calendar each week.  Our calendar is updated weekly, so try your best to find some time to sit down with your planner to make sure you have everything copied down.  All major projects and tests are usually on the calendar BEFORE an announcement is made in class.  It is your responsibility to check the calendar weekly!  Thank you!

Before the brief Thanksgiving holiday break, we carved out some time in class for students to think about some of the things they are thankful for in their lives.

During the past week we tried a close reading of Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.  A close reading has students read a rich and complex text multiple times while frequently discussing.  During a first reading, we try to get the gist of the text.  During our second reading, we focus more deeply on the craft and structure of the text; how is the text organized, structured?  What word choices did the author make?  What text features do I notice?  And for this particular poem, we also looked at rhyme scheme and pattern.  With our third reading, we attempt to make connections with text.

Early Explorers Research Project

Here are selected links for trust sources for your explorer research project-

Ducksters History Site

Enchanted Learning

Mr. Nussbaum

Land of the Brave

Encyclopedia.com

Mariners Museum

Subtracting Mixed Numbers

During topic 10 of our math unit, students will be required to subtract mixed numbers.  This can be a tricky concept for some.  Feel free to watch these two videos I have selected which teach different methods for subtracting mixed numbers.

Book Fair/ Art/ Games

Friday's book fair was a hit!  Our classroom received two handfuls of books for our classroom library!  See pictures below for students browsing new titles at the  book fair, working diligently during art, and having fun with our word sort games on Friday.