In reading the children have been practicing all the skills and strategies they have learned this year.  They are working on sustaining reading for longer periods of time and working independently to try and figure out unknown words.  They are very excited about our class pets- hermit crabs we have named Luke and Fred.  They sign up and are eager to practice their reading skills on a captive audience.

 In writing we finished our unit on opinion writing.  The children did well with this unit since it was a chance for them to voice their opinions and give reasons to back them up.  During the end of the week, the children had the opportunity to practice the various types of writing that we worked on this year; remembering details and working on conventions.  Their writing folders are going home today.  They are very excited to share their work with you and I heard comments such as, "My mom and dad are going to be so proud of me!"  I know that I am proud of how hard they have worked this year and what great writers they are becoming.

 In math we reviewed addition, subtraction, and problem solving.  We worked on fluency of facts through 5, and addition through 10 and 12.  The children had fun playing addition bump with a partner and practicing adding through 12.

 We did water play and worked on a unit about sinking and floating.  The children collected 5 objects from around the room and guessed whether they would sink or float.  They then asked their peers whether they thought the object would sink or float.  Finally, they tested their objects and recorded the results.

Friday was very exciting.  The children had to design boats out of clay and test them to see if they floated.  This was a quite challenge.  If they floated, they then tested to see how many bears their boat could hold.  There were many different designs and many failed attempts.  We talked about how Thomas Edison tried thousands of times before he was able to make a light bulb that worked.

It was thrilling when their boats floated and could hold bears!