Dear Parents,

    We are currently beginning work on our individual books for the writing festival.  This is based on the "Picturing Writing" method developed by Beth Olshansky of UNH.  It involves research, painting using watercolor techniques, and of course, writing.  During writer's workshop we are spending time improving our skills in the use of figurative language.  It is an expectation that students will enrich their fact-based story by including examples of some of the following:  similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, onomatopoiea and hyperbole.  Having presented this project to my class for many years, I am confident that they all will rise to this high standard and present you with a keepsake!

    In science, we are finishing up the outer planets, stars and constellations.  The test will be at the very beginning of February as report cards come out soon after.  As always, I will have the children write the test date in their agenda.  I will also put the date up on my webpage in the science section.  After that, we will be spending some time completing science inquiry tasks.  We will work with the scientific method, collect data through inquiry and experimentation, and write about our observations and conclusions.  The unit following these hands-on activities will be "Rocks and Minerals".

    In reading, we are still using the "Reading Street" series.  At this time, however, we are doing a brief unit on ancient Rome.  We will follow that by doing a short unit on the medieval times and then compare/contrast these two time periods.  The students are very interested and engaged in this work.

    Both math classes have been working on elapsed time and multiplication.  Elapsed time is always a complicated concept.  It is always helpful when it is reinforced at home.  Many of the children have really improved their recall of math facts.  Flashcards can always be used in place of the "Xtramath " website if access to a computer is a problem.

    As always,

    Mrs. Zall