Jane Goodall

Many thanks to Jane Goodall who came to visit the girls today.  We heard a wonderful biography about her and then the girls became primatologists and made observations on monkeys in the "wild."

We concluded our mini-unit on graphing today.  The girls are able to collect information, create a graph, and analyze the data.

Famous Females

Many thanks to our first famous female visitors--Julia Child and Gloria Steinem!

We continued with our graphing unit in math today by teaching the girls how to analyze a picture graph.  For the past few days, the girls have been reading and working with simple bar graphs. Today, however, the girls learned a different way to gather information--by using a picture graph. Many thanks to all parents who sent in pictures of pets.  We used these pictures to create our own class graph titled, "Pre-First Pets."  Our new graph is hanging in our classroom, so please feel free to come by and check out what pets are famous in pre-first.

We also read a story and discussed another fearless female---Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. 

Famous, Fearless Females!

We started our latest social studies unit this week and will be learning about many fearless women throughout the month of March.  Yesterday, we read The Story of Ruby Bridges and discussed the impact that 6 year old girl can have on a country.  The girls fell in love with Ruby's story and we had a wonderful conversation about how resilient she had to be.

Determined. Brave.  Amazing.  These are just three of the words that your daughters used to describe Wilma Rudolph, our second famous female we studied in our latest social studies unit on Women in History.  We traveled down to the first grade room and read the book Wilma Unlimited.  As a group, we discussed everything that Wilma had to overcome in order to be labeled the fastest woman on earth. 

Bar Graphs and Saying Goodbye to Ms. Brooks

On Friday, we said goodbye to Ms. Brooks.  Even though she is right around the corner, the girls wanted to throw her a "good luck in fourth grade" party.

On Friday afternoon we started talking about St. Patrick's Day and the girls exchanged ideas about why they are lucky.  They then returned to their seats, wrote about what made them feel lucky and made their own leprechauns. 

In math, we continued learning and discussing how to use and analyze a bar graph.  Today, the girls filled out a new bar graph and analyzed the data to complete a challenge sheet. 

We had another mystery reader.

Finally, this morning, our last two friends shared their dioramas.  The girls should be proud of their research and presentation skills!

Popplet and Presentation

The girls have been learning about transition words and phrases such as first, in the beginning, second, then, after that, next, finally and last.  They are currently incorporating these words and phrases into a How-To book, which they planned out using the iPad app, Popplet.

We also had another presentation this morning.

More Dioramas

The girls are almost finished presenting their hibernation dioramas.  We are extremely impressed with how the girls are speaking clearly, displaying confidence, and giving interesting facts about their animals.  The girls are learning a lot from each other and are greatly supportive of their classmates.

Gila Monster Presentation

How-To Class Book and Hibernation

Last week, the girls made melted crayon hearts and created a How-To class book using the new transition words they have learned. 

The girls worked in pairs to write about and illustrate one step in our How-To book.

As you know, we have been studying hibernation during science.  Last week, the girls conducted a science experiment on how frogs hibernate.  Be sure to ask your daughters why frogs are special hibernators.

After spending the last few art periods perfecting their animals, the girls finally started presenting their hibernation dioramas today.  We are so proud of the girls for doing an outstanding job of informing their friends about their animals.

Many thanks to our Mystery Reader!

We also had a publishing party with Ms. Stratton's fifth grade class to celebrate our non-fiction book on penguins.