It is great to be back in the classroom and kids are in full force learning mode. What a way to start the New Year with a record amount of snowfall for the month of January! We are reworking our plans and changing things up a little but expectations are still high.

ELA:
Our one school day, Friday (January 6th) we spent the day doing a week’s worth of lessons for our annual Letters about Literature Contest. It was an exciting day of writing as the students showed perseverance to write for a long period or periods of time. The letters have been mailed and we made the contest postmarked deadline! Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. Next comes the fun part, waiting to hear responses from either the contest or the individual authors!

ELA and Expedition:
Based on our successful Socratic Seminar and Simulation, the students will write an opinion piece from their side based on research Their piece will be based on their fictional character and with the guiding question: Was the Revolutionary War necessary or unnecessary for America to gain Independence?

Expedition:
Brooke Landis will start a mini case study Electric Inventors. This connects to our Ben Franklin case study from Rebels and Redcoats and is a suitable way to lead into our spring science expedition. We will explore Ben Franklin, electricity, energy and engineering. She will be in twice a week for the month of January to work with our crew. On the other days, we will wrap up our third case study, Power of Words. The students will learn about about the Three Charters of Freedom with using these learning targets: (1) I can describe the people and events involved in the creation and implementation of the Declaration of Independence. (2) I can analyze the historical significance of early documents and how they relate to the 1st Amendment. (3) I can articulate the reasons why the early citizens chose democracy.

Questions to ask your child:
What are the three documents that make up the Charters of Freedom?
Name some of the Founding Fathers of the different charters and what did they contribute.
What forms of energy are present when a light bulb lights up?
What is energy?
How is energy transferred?

Math:
4th- This crew will take an assessment as soon as we have consecutive days in the class and can review the concepts learned in December. Then they will move on to Unit 3 which will cover fractions in depth using clocks, egg cartons, and rulers to demonstrate the many ways fractions can be presented with the use of everyday items. We will continue hitting fluency of 1 through 12 multiplication facts hard for the rest of the year. Please practice with your child these facts, as it is hard to build upon math concepts without a strong base. Most kids have the easy ones; it is time to hit those hard 6,7,8 and 9 facts until fast memorization is met.

5th – We will be in Unit 3 as well. The students will analyze concepts related to place value, from reading, writing, and comparing decimals to rounding and examining the decimal patterns of multiplying and dividing numbers by 10. Students use their place value understandings to convert within a measurement system, and they use both whole number strategies and place value understanding to add and subtract decimals to hundredths. Division is the focus of Module 4, in which students model, solve, and pose long division problems. Students are excited to launch the in-school project “100,000 Dollar Bedroom.” Student will receive the project proposal and criteria, and create deadlines for themselves to meet their learning targets. Please do not expect students to work on this project at home- this is strictly in school work, and students may take home only if they choose to work on it there.

Our crew was in National news with CNN.money highlighting our stand up desks! Very exciting to be recognized nationally for a crew room being active in promoting a healthy lifestyle and movement with learning! Here is the link:http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/10/smallbusiness/jaswig-standing-desk-schools/ Standing desks are a simple and elegant way to create a movement rich environment where children are more engaged and perform better academically, burn more calories, eliminate or minimize orthopedic problems and disease, feel happier, and just plain move more. (From Standupkids.org)

Fieldwork:
Keep a look out for emails about our upcoming fieldwork. We are trying to schedule dates for possible visits to Reno’s Discovery Museum, Truckee Round House, Shady Creek, NASA Space program and a Winter Survival Program.

Our big Fieldwork will be May 10-12th to Monterey for our Bills and Gils expedition. Please put that your calendar.

More details to come about above fieldworks!