Newsletter: April 27th

Hey Everyone,

As I try to work toward wrapping a few things up, I'm going to offer a bit shorter newsletter this week than usual. Please enjoy the following photos to see what we've been up to in the classroom...

Owl Pellets in Explorations

Our current read aloud, Poppy, is about a deer mouse and her family working
to survive in a forest ruled by the evil  owl Mr. Ocax. Since the kids were
so invested in this story I pulled out some owl pellets and let them dig through
them to retrieve the mouse skeleton within.

Some of you may think this sounds gross, but the kids think it's amazing.

Here you can see a skull that was found within the pellet.

Exploring Electromagnets

This week we wrapped up our study of electricity.

We learned about electromagnets and their ability to turn on and off.

The kids worked with various resources to try to figure out how to build their own
electromagnet. After they discovered how to make it work they had to experiment
to see if they could make it stronger - able to pick up more washers in a single pull.

Selecting the Best NF Books of 2017

As I've mentioned before, our class has been asked to help select a winner for the
2017 Orbis Pictus Award. We began by reading some of the nominees to see
what was so great about these particular books.

We created a list for each book we read together.

We then sorted our observations into categories. These would become the categories
we would use as criteria for giving each book a score.

This award is given to the best non-fiction children's book each year.

There have been some really fun formats.

The kids read them as a whole group, in pairs, and individually. We are now  in the
process of giving each one a score. We feel very honored to be the only class of students
participating in this process for a national award.

Creating Our Own Book Trailers (Commercials for Our Favorite Books)

The kids are also working to create commercials for their favorite book - called a "Book Trailer."

To do this, we're learning to use We Video. This program allows us to create slides, visuals,
transitions, music, and much more. Ms. Whitecotton's class has acted as mentors for us. As
we work on our trailers we keep track of the questions we have in regards to the technology and
they, having already learned this program, pair up with us to offer answers and tutorials. 

These projects will allow us to show others about the great books we have read as well
as work on our opinion writing.