Deciphering Decimals

Some friendly fraction competition

Using tools to
build decimal numbers

As we close this unit in mathematics students are using what they know understand about fractions to explore their relationship with decimals. Showing our thinking in numbers, sketches and words helps us to represent and explain our understanding and justify why our strategies make sense. Games like Decimals More or Less and Fractions and Decimals help us to collaborate to make sense of this relationship in concrete (and fun!) ways.

Student writers give each other
feedback to polish their writing pieces

Writers used the peer editing process to polish their biography information pieces to prepare for our Vermont History Museum next Friday. We have learned lots of interesting and important facts about our famous Vermonters and we can't wait to share our thinking with you.


In our January Four Winds Nature studies activities this week we learned about how animals like bears, snakes, and frogs survive during the winter. These hands on activities were an engaging way to thinking about the natural world around us. Thanks so much to our parent volunteers!

Report cards are coming home today (1/26) and we would appreciate it if you could send the signed envelope back to school so we can reuse it in the spring. Thanks!

Fondly,
Jess and Liz

Biography Buffs

Biographers have been hard at work during literacy time. First they chose a famous Vermonter to research and used appropriate tools and elements of a biography to take notes about different categories they would include in their informational writing.

Students have learned a lot about their person's childhood, education, challenges, and accomplishments. They have also been looking for character traits to describe their person. We have been supporting that work during our read aloud time by reading biography picture books and looking at the way the author structured his/her text. Using mentor texts helps to inspire writers to push the level of their thinking.

Another way to push your writing is to understand the goal of the writing genre. To do that work students have been looking at what makes a quality lead, strong organization, and elaboration in an informational writing piece. They are currently aiming to have:

 * A lead/introduction that hooks their reader by telling an important fact, uses a quote or gives a big picture idea. The lead also lets the reader know they will learn about different parts of this person's life.

* They are looking to organize their writing into logical categories that stick to one topic/idea throughout the paragraphs. For some sections they are aiming to have multiple paragraphs.

* Writers are aiming to elaborate each section by giving specific details like dates, names, and examples that teach the reader even more.

Next week we will edit our pieces and begin to add visual elements like timelines, photos with captions, and other nonfiction elements to create a strong presentation for our culminating event-The Mosaic Vermont History Museum. The museum will be "open" for you to visit on the morning of February 2 from 8:00-8:45. We will send home a formal invite this week and we hope that you can all make it to the museum and learn from your students' hard work.

Budding Biographers

The first week back at school was brief and below zero, but we excitedly began our new integrated unit on biographies. During read aloud students listened carefully for the elements that this special nonfiction genre contains.

Once we had created a through list of elements (i.e. challenges the person faced, accomplishments, education, told in third person, chronological structure, etc.) students then worked as biography detectives, reading  biography passages from a wonderful digital resource called Newsela and checking off the elements that they found.

This week the students will transfer what they learned as readers into their writing as they begin to interview each other and write autobiographies. Once this genre of writing is "in their bones" they will choose a famous Vermonter to research and write an informational report about.

Students will turn Mosaic into a live Wax Museum for the culminating project of this unit. The date will be in early February. Stay tuned for more information and a formal "ticket" to our exhibit.

Please remember that we head outside for fresh air and movement daily and students should come prepared with all of the winter gear they'll need to do so. They should also bring a pair of shoes to change into as winter boots are chilly on the feet and they salt they collect can damage our lovely new carpets.

Stay warm!

Liz and Jess