4th/5th: Week of May 8th

This week in writing we had a lot of fun going on poetry scavenger hunts! We reviewed all the elements of poetry we’ve learned about so far: metaphor, simile, repetition, alliteration, personification, rhyme, and onomatopoeia. Gammas looked through all of our poetry books and took notes on the elements they found. They then made invoices for Ms. Ansley and earned beaucoup gamma bucks! Each poetry element was worth 5 dollars a pop. We also talked about A Single Shard this week. We discussed the meaning of the title and how the ending of the book, while very sad, was also hopeful and happy! In life and literature things are often both good and bad.

This week in math we did a short daily review each day to refresh the math topics that we’ve covered during this final quarter. Year 1 students focused on adding/subtracting decimals, perimeter/area, measurement and input/output tables. Year 2 students focused on finding volume of rectangular prisms (using a formula) and irregular figures (counting cubic units by layer) as well as metric conversions. Since both groups are ahead of the game, we were able to launch into a new platform (Thinglink) to create our own multimedia escape rooms. The kids did a fantastic job learning a new tool and the pace that their projects are evolving is nothing short of impressive.

We’re in the crunch zone with theme this week! We’ve spent most of our afternoons working on our virtual presentations about self-selected topics of interest regarding Medieval Asia. On Wednesday we had a meeting of committees for POP preparations. The committees are: body systems room, medieval Asia room, quality control, tidy and organize, math projects, and pictures. Gammas got together with their committees and brainstormed ideas for how they will set up the projects and the classroom, materials they might need, and more. We are giving the kiddos more ownership of how the room will look for POP than ever before and I think you all are in for a treat!