Weekly News: 1/22

This week we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.  We watched his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and examined the figurative language that Dr. King used throughout.  In addition, we listened to a book, "My Brother Martin," which was written by Dr. King's sister, Christine King Farris.  This book reminded us that Dr. King was a child like all of us once.

Teammate of the Week: Caitlyn

Congratulations to our newest Teammate of the Week, Caitlyn!  Caitlyn was recognized by her classmates as our Teammate of the Week because:

• She always does what she is supposed to do.
• She works quietly and tries not to disturb others.  
• She is always friendly and helps you when you need it.
• She always gets her homework done.
• When she is not here, she gets caught up with her work. 

Weekly News: 1/15

This week we closed out our unit on Ancient Egypt by learning about various Egyptian leaders, including King Tut, Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, Djoser and Sneferu.  We watched part of Egypt, Engineering an Empire to see the evolution of the first "step pyramid" to the Great Pyramid.

In Writing Workshop, we were busy creating our first drafts of our "seed" stories.  To help us get started, we examined the leads of numerous mentor texts we've shared this year, including Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco, Sunshine Home, by Eve Bunting, and Strong to the Hoop, by John Coy.  

Weekly News: 1/8

We had an exciting week! We uncovered our apple "mummies" to see how they looked after 1 month. We found that those apples preserved in table salt and epsom salt looked the best. We also took a virtual tour of the Great Pyramid online. It was fascinating being able to "walk" through the interior corridors. We were amazed at how small the passageways were and how few rooms there were inside.

We also spent some time this week reviewing our entries in our Writer's Notebooks to find our "buried treasure". Next week, we'll begin the process of growing one of those "seed" stories into a published piece of writing.