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Fiesta Mexicana 2015

Today was our Mexican Fiesta! We started by making farolitos (little lanterns) out of paper and reading a book called The Night of Las Posadas. 

We then started our own Los Posadas. We went to the cafeteria and the office, and they wouldn’t let us in for shelter, but parents in our class finally gave us shelter and we started our fiesta! We sang Cascabel and El Burrito de Belen (the Little Donkey of Bethlehem).

Then we all took a whack at the piñata. It lasted long enough for everyone to take a swing! Then we headed back to the room to eat. The menu included:

• Mexican-style tacos on corn tostada shells;
• Spicy shredded chicken eaten with torn flour tortillas;
• Nopalitos (prickly pear cactus!);
• Pepinos (cucumbers with lemon juice and salt);
• Mexican hot chocolate (hot chocolate with cinnamon); and,
• Buñelos (fried flour tortillas with cinnamon and sugar).

We ran out of time to play Toma Todo, a Mexican top game much like the Jewish dreidel. In this game, students start with ten beans, then take or put in beans as the top says. The person with the winning amount of beans could select a Mexican pop. We’ll play this game during the week we return.

A grande-sized thanks to the parents who helped prepare and serve food today at the fiesta, and for all the generous donations–we had more than enough food and everyone had their fill!

Feliz Navidad!

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: None this week.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: We began our next writing project, a Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook. Students will write a fiction adventure story with choices that the reader can make. Each choice can change how the story turns out. Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. See below for more details.

This project is due Friday, January 22. Students should be thinking of an adventure topic and possible story ideas ideas at this point. Get some ideas below or right here. Any prewriting students can do over break will help them start this project faster when we return.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Here are some good student examples:
  • William’s Roanoke Adventure
  • Abel’s Aztec Terror
  • Katie’s Lost Statue hunt
  • Nancy’s Under Water Adventure!
• Look at an Underground RailroadChoose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground RailroadInteractive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Play Oregon Trail, another text-based computer game.

Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: None today due to a holiday assembly.

Below are some skills we’ve been working on lately:

• Place value and rounding
• Addition within 1000
• Subtraction within 1000

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: We learned about matter (it’s anything that takes up space). Students wrote notes in their minibooks and also completed a miniquiz.

Social Studies: None today.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is Tuesday, December 22 from 9-noon. Family members are welcome to help out and join us. Here is our volunteer list.
• Grand Blanc Community Education is asking about the interest level for August day camps for kids. Some parents have asked for things to keep their kids busy during the dog-days of summer while gearing them up for school. Please share your ideas in this 3-minute survey.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue or StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed using apostrophes to show ownership and for contractions. For possessive pronouns, apostrophes are never used. For example, it’s means it is, and its means belongs to it. This was a source of confusion on the last spelling test.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 34-36 are available in class and due on Friday.

Reading: None today due to art.

Writing: Today was a publishing day. Students were deleting their prewriting, resolving their comments, and making their story more readable for the reader.

A fiction story will be due Friday, December 18. Your student should be publishing by now. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes. Students may also work on their story this weekend if they need extra time to finish.

Math: None today due to an assembly about a Make a Magazine after school club.

Below are some skills we’ve been working on lately:

• Place value and rounding
• Addition within 1000
• Subtraction within 1000

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: We learned that matter is anything that takes up space. Even invisible air is matter, because it takes up space. We filled syringes with air and connected them to other syringes with plastic tubing. The plunger of one syringe could move just by pressing in the plunger of the other syringe. The air inside was pushing the plungers, showing that air takes up space.

Social Studies: None today due to our reading skills and AR practice time.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is Tuesday, December 22 from 9-noon. Family members are welcome to help out and join us. Here is our volunteer list.
• Grand Blanc Community Education is asking about the interest level for August day camps for kids. Some parents have asked for things to keep their kids busy during the dog-days of summer while gearing them up for school. Please share your ideas in this 3-minute survey.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue or StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 34-36 are available in class and due on Friday.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles; some groups worked on determining importance as a reading strategy. Students also received their last STAR Reading level. Below is our class results:

As shown above, our class improved to about 4.5. However, we are still recovering from a poor result earned earlier in the year. Our class goal is level 5.4, so we have a lot of work to do. Students said they were going to be more careful on STAR tests, be more thoughtful during Literature Circles, and read 20 minutes a night at home.

Writing: Today was a publishing day. Students were deleting their prewriting, resolving their comments, and making their story more readable for the reader.

A fiction story will be due Friday, December 18. Your student should be publishing by now. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes.

Math: Students worked on some rounding skills today, or started some beginning multiplication practice in Khan Academy.

Below are some skills we’ve been working on lately:

• Place value and rounding
• Addition within 1000
• Subtraction within 1000

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: We reviewed common temperature benchmarks and wrote notes in our minibooks.

Social Studies: None today due to our reading skills and AR practice time.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is Tuesday, December 22 from 9-noon. Family members are welcome to help out and join us. Here is our volunteer list.
• Grand Blanc Community Education is asking about the interest level for August day camps for kids. Some parents have asked for things to keep their kids busy during the dog-days of summer while gearing them up for school. Please share your ideas in this 3-minute survey.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue or StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: Today was a preview of upcoming spelling words.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 34-36 are available in class and due on Friday.

Reading: Students completed a STAR Reading test today.

Writing: We talked stopping run-on sentences. Sentences should contain one, two, or three ideas, and then end. Put an end mark and start a new sentence.

Today was an editing day and students worked on editing conferences, commenting on spelling, capitals, periods, paragraphs, and quotation marks for dialogue. A fiction story will be due Friday, December 18. Your student should be editing by now. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes.

Math: We talked about the results of our last STAR Math test:

As shown above, our class average STAR Math level is 4.8, which is only two months of growth away from our yearly goal of level 5.0! The class should be proud of their great results so far!

Students also practiced math skills using Khan Academy. Below are some skills we’ve been working on lately:

• Place value and rounding
• Addition within 1000
• Subtraction within 1000

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: None today due to our scheduled reading skills and AR practice time.

Social Studies: We learned that Michigan’s top exports are car parts, medical furniture and tools, natural gas and iron, and food products. We also learned that the top trading partners of the US are Canada and China. The class predicted what types of exports we send to China, and what types of imports we receive. Homework is to finish the Prediction Chart if not done in class.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is Tuesday, December 22 from 9-noon. Family members are welcome to help out and join us. Here is our volunteer list.
• Grand Blanc Community Education is asking about the interest level for August day camps for kids. Some parents have asked for things to keep their kids busy during the dog-days of summer while gearing them up for school. Please share your ideas in this 3-minute survey.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue or StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.