October is almost over!

In our new unit we have started personal narrative writing- writing about our lives and our experiences. We have practiced learning the strategies for gathering ideas. So far we have thought of a special person, listed small moments and turned it into a writing piece. We also have used the same strategy with a special place.


In reading we have been working on sequencing the main events of a story. We used "Bubba the Cowboy Prince" and the "Frog Prince Continued". Can you guess what new genre we are studying?!?!

For the BLOG BONUS:
- Sequence how you plan on getting ready for Halloween. Include your sequencing key words (first, second, third, next, then, lastly, finally, etc). Post on the blog or record the steps on paper and turn it in!


OR


- Write about your creepiest or scariest Halloween moment. Post on the blog or write your small moment on notebook paper and bring in.

Have a good weekend! I can't wait to see everyone on Monday! I am proud of how you worked today!

What's the MATTER?

This week, as you may have noticed, we started learning about the states of matter. This week we have focused on the properties of matter and the ways you can measure matter.

This week we also started a new IB unit. The central idea of our unit is:
People reflect on their lives through the art, writing, and sharing of literature.


We also started learning about a new genre: Fairy Tales
We learned that:
-a fairy tale is a type of folktale
- there is a fight against good and evil
- there are mystical creatures- like a Pegasus, dragon, fairy, etc
- there is magic
- animal can act and talk like humans
- there is royalty
- take place in woods and castles


BLOG BONUS:
1. GO to the same website as last week:

http://roundrockisd.stemscopes.com/login

2. Log in
User name: pair3
Password: pair3

3. Click on the link to open

4. complete the review game and listen to the science rock song

5. Post on the blog properties that describe a secret object you have. Do not post what the secret object is and I will try to guess it.

Example:
- green
- smooth and bumpy
- cube
- small
- sinks
- nonmagnetic

What am I?

Have a GREAT weekend!

We compelted our first IB unit!!

This week we completed our first IB unit. For our final project we wrote letters to Rick Perry from the point of view of farmers, construction workers, historical preservationists, environmentalists, and business owners. We tried to convince or not to convince Rick Perry to move forward with building the Trans- Texas Corridor.

Here is some information we learned:

Here is our final project- Our letters to Rick Perry

We also finished learning about addition and subtraction with regrouping. Here is our chart we made together in the classroom:



In reading we focused on main idea of fiction and non-fiction reading. We read a humors story called "Frank was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance". It was pretty silly. You can find it on "Tumble Books" under the CHE library research resources web site:



Our main idea bats after reading "Bats at the Library"



BLOG Bonus!!
You will be completing a scavenger hunt on natural resources. The website is through Round Rock ISD and the websites have been approved for student use. As teachers we use the website for planning various science lessons!
Instructions:
1. Click on the following link to go to the web site:
Click her for the bonus

2. Log in.
User name: pair3
Password: pair3

3. click on the link after you log in that is title "Unit One"

4. Click on "Web Surfing Science"

5. Click on the link titled "web quest". It will open up a document. If you click on the links it will take you to the website you need to go to to find the answers. You can print out the "Web Quest" and fill it in or you can record your answers on notebook paper!

6. If it will not work or if you have any questions, post them on the blog and I will get back to you! Happy hunting!!

:) Ms. Pair

Choices people make influences society

This week we had a discussion in the classroom about CHE becoming an IB school. We discussed that we will be learning through 6 different units this year. Our first unit has been "Who We Are". Our central idea for our unit is "Choices people make influences society." Our central idea is our reason for learning all of the concepts that we have in the last 6 weeks.

We have learned that choices can influence natural resources, the ecosystems, businesses. In order to better  understand these topics we discussed cause and effect and fact and opinion.
We are completing our first unit next week. The building of the Trans-Texas Corridor is our inspiration for our final project. We are going to be working on a project where we write a letter to Rick Perry from the view point of a construction worker, farmer, historical preservationist, environmentalist, or business owner. We will have to persuade Rick Perry to or not to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. We will be having a debate in out classroom to argue our opinions.

We watched a video where people described how building the road would effect them and their lives. Watching this video made us feel:
- like we wanted to help to change the situation
- When we learned that historical cemeteries would be destroyed it made us upset
- Sad and mad because the road will destroy plants and animals homes. It will cause people to leave their homes.

Here is a link to the video we watched in class to help us with background knowledge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btewqYiom_o

BLOG BONUS!! Write a letter to a person of your choice persuading them to do something you want them to do. (Ex: buy candy, take you to a movie, come visit) Bring the letter in or post it on the blog by Tuesday morning. Complete for a SECRET SURPRISE!