Room 100 Happenings

We have had a very busy, short week. The students have come in with an abundance of energy. They used that energy to produce some great work!
Mayflower
Please look for more information about our Mayflower excursion in your child's folder next Monday. Also, please look for a note regarding building the Mayflower and taking it down in today's folder!
Reading
This week we read the story Corduroy by Don Freeman. We worked on the reading strategy of monitoring and clarifying. We also worked on describing the characters in the story by making a character pyramid poem. Look for it in the packet that will go home next week! Reading groups are working on summarizing, responding to literature and silent reading strategies.
Writing
Of all the great work the class did this week I am most proud of the wonderful writing. Each student wrote about a day in the life of an Eastern Woodland boy or girl. They included rich details and were able to summarize what life might have been like 400 years ago! We used the book Tapenum's Day as a model. I will display these stories in the classroom for a while.
Math
We finished Unit 2 last week in math and are currently working on Unit 3. The focus in this unit is place value and time and money skills. In order to keep our addition and subtraction facts fast we started taking a weekly timed test. We will take a 5 minute math fact test every Monday morning. You should see these tests in your child's folder. After a child masters a test she will move on to the next level.
Social Studies
We have been learning a great deal about the Eastern Woodland tribes. We are focusing on these tribes because of their interactions with the first European settlers, but also because they are often under-represented in the presentation of Native American life. We are learning that the Eastern Woodland tribes lived in wetus and longhouses, planted the three sisters and were hunters and gatherers. After Thanksgiving, when we learn about early colonization and the formation of our government, we will learn how the Iroquois Nation greatly influenced our system of a representative government.
Science
Alas, our worms have died. I was disappointed to discover last weekend a rather icky smell coming from our composter. Despite following directions very carefully, the worms were not happy in their little home. We are looking into other options and I will keep you posted. Please do not send in any more items to be composted until further notice.