Hello, 206 families and friends!
It’s already December and we are busy in Room 206!
In reading, we recently finished our class read-aloud, No Talking, which sparked plenty of lively discussions about the idea of staying silent! The story began as a contest between the 5th-grade boys and girls but grew into a lesson about standing up for what you believe in and finding new ways to communicate. The ending had us on the edge of our seats, wondering whether the boys or girls would win—we found ourselves rooting for both Dave and Lynsey! Be sure to ask your student how it ended.
Next week, we’ll work in partnerships to create character analyses to share with the class. We’ll also explore how different species communicate, building on what we’ve already learned about how trees “talk.”
No Talking is one of two selections for the Battle of the Books competition on December 19. To prepare, students are practicing writing multiple-choice questions that focus on key details from the story and sharing them with classmates. This activity helps them hone their skills in writing clear and thoughtful sentences while recalling specific details from the book.
In Everyday Math, we explored a variety of concepts, including time conversions and calculating elapsed time, applying the order of operations, investigating Goldbach’s conjecture, solving for unknowns, and graphing and interpreting data.
In science, we completed the Pencil Bouncers activity, investigating how high a pencil bounces off the floor. In groups, students dropped pencils from various heights, recorded the data, and represented it using graphs. This activity helped them understand the importance of controls, variables, and careful data observation. Ask your student what they noticed during the experiment!
This activity ties in beautifully with our ongoing discussion of resources, like pencils. Students observed that the eraser significantly affected the bounce and discussed how different pencils and types of erasers might impact the results. This connected to an earlier experiment where we tested the performance of various erasers—an idea that came full circle during this activity!
Enjoy the beautiful sunshine!
Ms. Beth
