We talked about immigration in Music and related it to our novel, Esperanza Rising, and Irishmen.
Math-time brought the application of the skill of multiplying fractions by a whole number to converting measurements to different-sized units.
Students are working on ideas for their next blog posts. Many students are starting to have themes, but some students are changing topics regularly. We are all expected to comment on each others' posts.
We had some very sophisticated discussions about the big metaphors and themes in Esperanza Rising.
Students were excited to get a new option, writing a crossword puzzle, for their vocabulary work this week. They should still gather words of interest from their reading and our schoolwork. Directions about how to use a website to do this are on the ELA>Vocabulary page of this website.
Today was our first afternoon in Mr. Anderson's room, learning about Latin American geography.
The school made a lovely banner for the family of our former library clerk, Mrs. Margaret Haring, who passed away over the holiday. The children had fond memories to express and were kind enough to think about how hard Mrs. Haring's death will be on Ms. Ball, who worked with her for so many years in the library. I reminded them that they may need or want to talk with someone about their sadness or memories, and that we have people available, including me, who will make time for those important conversations if they let us know. Parents can also communicate with the school if they think their child needs counseling over this loss. I will be out of school for a portion of the day t