Hello everyone!
I hope you had a restful break, whether or not you had the time off. It's good to be back! Here are a few updates on what's happening in our classroom:
Reading: We are currently about half-way through Wonder, a fantastic realistic fiction read-aloud that brings up questions of friendship, family, equality, and fairness. Ask your child about August, Jack Will, and the rest of the characters!
Math: As we move towards our final round of Math PARCC, we will be covering several key areas of study including the beginnings of multi-digit multiplication as well as geometry. If your child has memorized all of their basic multiplication facts, feel free to begin challenging them with some basic multi-digit multiplication using partial products. For example: "What is 26 x 4?" Solution: "Well, twenty times four is eighty, and six times four is twenty-four, so added together the answer is one-hundred and four."
Social Studies: Soon, we will begin a study of Colonial Newton. Much like our Pilgrim Unit, our students will be grouped as families who actually lived and worked in Colonial Newton. As an end-project, in family groups the students will construct a three-d version of their family farm and we will have Colonial Day.
Science: We just had a nice visit from Pat at Drumlin Farms who brought frogs, a duck, and many tiny living things in pond water. Soon, we will receive our tadpoles to raise and nurture. Cabot is quite lucky to take part in a program which works to re-seed threatened Spade-Foot Toads. We will raise our toads from tadpoles to frogs, then they will be released back to vernal pools on the Cape. Our students have begun researching and learning about frogs and other amphibians.
Writing: Beginning next week, we will set forth upon our last large writing unit. Over the last few months of school, or students will study opinion writing. Be prepared to receive letters to the tune of, "Why I should get a dog", "Why chores are unfair", and my personal favorite, "Why we should send my brother/sister to live on a desert island until they turn eighteen."
Plimoth Plantation: If you would like to chaperone our Plimoth Plantation trip on May 11th, we're still accepting chaperone requests. The more the merrier! Please let me know if you've had a CORI like to join us! I will send out a list of parent volunteers soon so you can organize carpools if you'd like.
