Hi parents!

This was the week we finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret! While were sad for our story to come to an end, we were happy to learn some of our characters had a kinder heart than we might have originally thought in the story. Here’s what else we’ve been up to:

• Two of our three Paris landmark projects are complete! While we still have some finishing touches going up on our walls, we are so proud of the work we have done! Each group built their own version of their landmark, completed a second project of their choosing, and listed the sources used for their research. These will definitely be staying up beyond Spring Break so we can continue to enjoy them!

• We continued our study of perimeter throughout the week. On Monday and Tuesday, groups of students chose their own perimeter and then found as many rectangles as they could with that perimeter. As each group shared with the class, we had excellent discussions about what patterns each group found and if those patterns applied to all perimeters or just theirs. We also talked about why the group that had chosen a perimeter of 25 had such a hard time compared to the other groups (40 and 12). On Wednesday, we made leprechaun traps! Of course we added the bonus challenge that each trap had to have a perimeter of at least 40 inches on the base. Traps ranged from a mini water park that would be enjoyable, but keep the leprechaun stuck inside to contraptions that would put any unsuspecting leprechaun in great physical danger! I loved the creativity in the room!

• On Thursday, we finished collecting data from our food drive donations. Next week we will make our visual representations of the data we collected. I’m excited to learn which item we collected weighted the most and which donations could be stacked to the tallest tower.

• Today we ended the week by watching the movie, Hugo! We were surprised by some of the differences between the book and the movie. Now we’re already excited to see what our next novel will be! Stay tuned 😉
• Even with a windy week, we had fun at recess!

Have a great weekend!

-Anna

Hi parents!

We had an amazing week that ended with a super successful St. Baldrick’s event today! Take a look at what we were up to throughout the week.

• We are getting ready for conferences! We are preparing with journal entries, Hugo sketches, and the final drafts of our art essays.

• Our Paris projects are taking shape! With paint, glitter, and shoe boxes, our room is turning into Paris. Each group has been working hard to design and create the Parisian landmark of their choosing. The groups are also making a secondary project (an information booklet, fact sheet, or recreation of a specific detail from the landmark). We are excited to show you our finish products!

• THANK YOU all of you for your support with our class food drive! It was a huge success! Before the food is brought to the Des Plaines Food Pantry, we are analyzing what we collected. Our amazing philanthropists weighed, counted, and measured the donations. I heard excellent mathematical strategies like weighing one of each different object and then multiplying the weight by the correct quantity.

• St. Baldrick’s event!

• More fun from the week.

• Have a great weekend!

Hi parents,

 

I hope you enjoyed the beautiful week as much as we did! Take a look at what we’ve been up to 🙂

• Throughout the week we continued our conversations about the rectangles we made with a perimeter of 36 units. This brought up some great conversations about addition and division. We also discussed how exactly squares and rectangles are related!
• In addition to practicing telling time throughout the day and playing Time BINGO, we have a new clock to check in our classroom! This one is set to the current time in Paris. Our class has enjoyed thinking about what people might be doing in Paris right now while we’re eating lunch! Or right now when we’re on our way back from recess! The two clocks also spurred a conversation about time zones which led to an excellent impromptu modeling of the earth spinning on its axis and rotating around the sun 🙂

• Our Paris projects are coming along great! This week we dug through websites and books to learn information about each landmark and made plans for creating our projects next week.  We also connected with Hugo by watching one of the silent films he watches in the book, Safety Last. Most of the class found this Harold Lloyd film to be pretty funny even without any talking! We all agreed there was a noticeable difference in special effects when we compared the film to George Melies’s from 30 years before.
• In one of our recent chapters of Hugo, Hugo and his friend, Isabelle, talk about their purpose in the world, comparing themselves to the gears and cogs in machines. Each student then reflected and wrote in their journal about their own purpose. We decided people could have more than one purpose and their purpose(s) might change throughout their lives. I was impressed with the connections students made to our ongoing conversations about identity.

• LEGO math challenge from the week!

• Thank you for your generous donations to the food pantry! Next week we’ll analyze the donations and we’ll let you know the results.

• More fun from the week

Have a great weekend!

-Anna