We are studying wood.  We know that wood is a material and we observed wood's properties.  We looked at samples of pine, cedar, basswood, particle board and plywood.  The first three come from trees (pine from a pine tree, cedar from a cedar tree, basswood from a linden tree), but particle board is made from wood waste, saw dust, and glue and plywood is made from gluing layers of wood together.  We talked about what happens when wood gets wet- it either absorbs the water or the water beads up.  The pine absorbed the water, but the water beaded up on the particle board.  Next we talked about whether or not wood floats.  We saw that it floats even if we band a few pieces together and even if we leave it in the water overnight.  Today we talked about how we could get our wood samples to sink.  We used paper clips and elastics and found that 19 paper clips will sink. a pine sample.  We found that 17 or 18 paper clips will sink a particle board sample.   
We are really enjoying this unit!

We have been solving story problems.  We made a chart of how we show our problem solving thinking. Our math coach, Mrs. Kidd, helped us make a chart of our thinking, then after we solved a problem she added our work to the chart. We can refer to this chart now to make sure we remember to show
all of our strong math thinking! We also use our chart to check our work and find any mistakes! 

It was kindness week this week.  We talked about how our actions and our words can be kind or unkind.  We made of list of kind actions and words- compliments are kind; encouragement is kind; helping is kind; cooperating is kind, etc. 
We decided that we are going to try to choose kindness... not just this week, but every day! We talked about how sometimes we think unkind thoughts, but we should't always say them. For example, if we don't l like something Mom made for dinner, we don't have to say, "yuck!" WE can keep it in our brains. We discussed lots of scenarios and how we could choose to do the right thing and leave unkind thoughts in our brains! We also talked about choosing to say something kind instead.  We could always say, "I liked the other chicken dinner better, Mom."  We read a book called Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? It was about how kindness "fills our bucket", but unkind gestures and words "dip" from our bucket. We started to track kindness by adding to our class bucket when we do kind things for each other.  Hopefully with each act of kindness we CAN make our world a better place!

We studied how the oil on a penguin's feathers and their blubber help keep them warm.  First we put petroleum jelly on our finger and noticed how the water beaded up when we put our finger in it.  This shows how most of the water won't make it to the penguin's skin.  Then we covered our glove hand with crisco to simulate blubber.  We put both hands in ice cold water and wow! The gloved hand was warm even though the water was icy cold! 

We used pan balance scales to learn about the weight concepts of "lighter" and "heavier". We compared objects, we saw how many pennies things weighed, and we saw how we could "balance the scale" by pulling some off the heavier side and adding it to the lighter side with clay.  

We have been working really hard to become strong writers.  We write about topics of our choice.  We made a list of the qualities of strong pieces: neat, sound in words are recorded, popcorn words spelled correctly, words are spaced, capitals and ending marks are used correctly, and sentences are "beefy".

Now when we are finished we meet with our writing partner to revise and edit our piece. Powerful! 

Our Penguin Chart

 This week we finished our Penguin unit.  Boy did we learn a lot! We charted our prior knowledge and new learning and then discussed our misconceptions.  We then did nonfiction writing on penguins. 

We drew and then painted penguins! 

Informational writing about penguins

We read "Tacky the Penguin" by Helen Lester. We learned the story elements: character, setting, problem & solution. We then talked about character traits We found that Tacky is an odd bird-  looks different & acts differently from the other penguins, but he is a nice bird to have around! 

We learned how to use "text evidence" when answering a question (What do you know about Tacky)  and we learned that when writing a response, we should    
                                          answer the question in a complete 
                                          sentence using that detail. 

We did a story element chart for "Tacky"

We made our own Tacky!

We are studying weight in math.  After learning about the concepts of "lighter" and "heavier", we used balance scales to compare objects.  

We worked with our partner to first compare 2 "things".  We found that the heavier thing made its side of the scale go down and the lighter one went up.  

Then we worked to together to figure out how many pennies each object weighed.  We found that a glue stick weighs as much as 17 pennies! We used the skills of predicting and trial and error as we worked to together. We recorded our answers on our answer sheets so we could discuss as a class when we were through. 

 We learned about Martin Luther King Jr. this week.  We learned that he was a man that helped change "bad" laws that treated people differently based on the color of their skin.  We learned that he was peaceful in his attempt to do this- he wrote letters, gave powerful speeches, and led demonstrations. 
We did an experiment with eggs to help illustrate that it doesn't matter what you look like, what matters is what is on the inside.  
We started by looking at 2 eggs- 1 white and 1 brown. 

We noticed that they were the same size and shape.  The only difference between them was that they were a different color.

Then we talked about what we thought they would be like on the inside 

 We cracked each one open and looked at them closely.  They both had orange/yellow yolks and "that white stuff".  They were exactly the same! 

We came to the conclusion that this helps illustrate that we shouldn't judge a person by what they look like on the outside- hair color, eye color, skin color, the clothes they wear, etc. and concentrate on the inside... what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the content of their character". 

Our January Mantra is: Feedback is a Gift- Accept It!
We are receiving specific feedback from our teachers and are learning to give and receive specific feedback from each other.  

We are editors! We have been sharing our work with our writing partner.  In writing we listen to our partner and then we give them specific feedback- what they did well from our checklist and what they can improve.   

In reading we work together to share our thinking.  We find important details, look for chunks in words, use and discuss strategies, and discuss the book. 

In math we work together to discuss how we solved the story problem and how we showed our thinking.   

We always have an opportunity to revise our work and that is where the power lies! 

  A picture from the holidays! We learned about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Eid, and Christmas customs and traditions.  

Resolutions!
After we did a lot of discussing, we decided that a resolution is like a promise to ourselves... a promise to make a better ME.  We talked about three areas that we can concentrate on trying to improve.  The first is being a better son or daughter.  We had lots to say! We will try to be more helpful, more independent, and more cooperative at home.  The next area we will can improve is being a better student.   We came up with lots of great ideas.  We can try to listen more, participate more, be helpful, be independent, and always try our best.  The final area is being a better friend.  We said that if we are more patient and kind with each other, as well as being helpful and considerate, we will become a better friend to everyone. 
We are off to an excellent start to 2018!