Reading: We had started our new book last week, and today we are only 4 chapters in. We have a lot more reflection questions for this response as well as language questions. The book itself is shorter than Wringer was, but has more assigned writing to cover. Students are reading together in new groups but are doing all written work individually.
5th grade Writing: Today our Freshman friends came down to read their WW2 books to us. We heard 6 different books which then led to some good discussion about history. We will continue to work on our "key" writings the rest of this week and finish our final copies on Monday. They will be displayed on the wall where our Chris VanAllsburg writings were.
4th Grade Writing: We also had a Freshman class come in and read their WW2 stories today as well. The 4th graders were excellent listeners and were fully engaged the entire time. Today we barely started our state mini project. We each chose our state, and we began to go over the rubric. Tomorrow, we will make sure we all understand the rubric and my expectations. After that, we will begin researching. I drew the state of North Carolina, and while I research and take notes from my StarBoard, your students will be doing the exact same thing with their state. I will walk them through every step of this project.
Music/Health Education: Our health education instructors have been impressed with our students. We will continue to have Art on Mondays and health on Wednesdays for those who participate.
Projects: We spent a few weeks learning about the ways that New York City, Los Angeles, and Fallon are working to conserve energy. The three groups then presented to each other. We took this information, as well as the information that Mr. Taylor presented to us and compiled the information. Now we are in the process of using what we know about our school, and using tips from various websites to compile information on how to conserve energy in our building. We will be creating power point type presentations, emails and posters as we present to every student and every adult in our building. We also were able to view our power bills for the last three months. After three months, we will evaluate the power bill and see if our tips actually helped us save money and reduce our carbon footprint. We will be presenting tips and ideas for saving money as well as ideas for changes in the building structure (lowering ceilings, solar tubes for natural light and installing solar panels), the middle school in turn will use their energy project opportunity to write real proposals to present to our Board of Directors.
We have been very busy, working hard. As conference time approaches, I want you to know that your child will be presenting their work and their growth in a student led conference. We have much to share with you, and I am excited for you to see their growth!
