We had a really great week! by feature blogger, Dashiell and blographer, Palmer

Today was Monday, the first day of the week. Here are some things we did: 

First, we did cursive writing. We learned the letters "w" and "u." I think we’ve learned about half of the letters. 

So next, we had a mask break. It was really fun because we played tag and we ate our snacks. 

Then we sat on the carpet and listened to Mrs. Koch read Wonder. Wonder is about a fifth grade boy going to a new school. 

This is the first week that we started Distance Learning. Distance Learning is something like being in a pod with other people. We do "meeting calls" in the afternoon and again when we go home. We get to see some of our other friends from school. We learn a lot of stuff like math, reading and social studies. We go to one teacher for one thing and another teacher for another thing. Mrs. Street is for ELA and Social Studies & Mrs. Havner is for Math and Science and other stuff. It is nice to see some friends that we haven't seen in a while. 

We also finished our portraits today. They are showing our inner identity. And our outer identity. Inner and outer identities aren't the SAME! 

Later we read about the underground rail road and about a black abolitionist that escaped to England and wanted slavery to end.

Today was Tuesday and we got to choose some animals to research and write some facts about it. My animal was the gray wolf, other people did some animals like the rhino, the orca and the octopus. 

We also did our mask break and we ate our snacks and then we played freeze tag. 

And we have a speaker named Alexander and he is a sociologist and anthropologist. He told us about visiting other cultures and staying there for a little bit and then learning about their cultures and speaking their language.

Today is Wednesday and we read Wonder in the morning and it's a really good book. 

We had a mask break and we found Jerry the 30th Junior (an ant😂) The first ant we found Was named by I think Mia and maybe Lily but I forgot Who named Jerry. Today the ant was called Jerry the 30th Junior because we already found Jerry the 30th yesterday.

Today is Thursday and Read some of the books about slavery that my mom brought in. My favorite was What was the Underground Railroad. 

We had a really great week!

Best Week Ever! by our feature blogger Eli and blographer Lily.

Monday, October 5, 2020

For today we are doing TOPS math, cursive hand writing, a mask break, and social studies. TOPS math is kind of like trick questions. Once you get the hang of it it’s easier but it really makes us want to cry.

We’re reading a book called Lulu Walking the Dogs. We started out on Chapter 1 and now we are on Chapter 12. Lulu is the best book ever! I bet you will love this book at home. Lulu is rude, bossy, mean, rough, unhappy, pouty, angry, loud, grumpy, ungrateful, and unpleasant. Fleischman is great, safe, happy, nice, kind, well behaved, responsible, pleasant, generous, quiet, and musical. We are learning about our external and internal identity. Inside Lulu thinks she is nice, clear, fantastic, mad, sad, and important. 

We took a mask break and ate snack and then we played tag. And let me tell you, there are no good hiding spots! 

Now we are talking about slavery. Enslaved people got taken from their homes and some white people bought enslaved people to live with their family. We read a book called What is the Underground Railroad? We did a KWL chart about enslaved people and how they escaped with the Underground Railroad. 

We also did Logic Links where we have lots of colorful squares and you have to put them in a correct pattern.  In 48 hours we are going to go on a field trip! Oh no! At the end of the day we were a little late but we still made it.

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 

Today we are doing cursive handwriting, a mask break and social studies. 

Right now we are reading the book Wonder and we are connecting it with learning about external identity and internal identity. We finished at least three chapters. Next we played SET. It the best game EVER! 

We learned about doing rounding in math. At mask break we did tag and relay races. We did a creative thinking, brainstorming project about what can fit in your pockets. 

Now we are reading What is the Underground Railroad again. It’s the best about black history. We are also reading Amy Hodgepodge All Mixed Up for our literature circle.

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

We are going on a field trip to a museum and we are going to learn about black history. It’s going to be great! But there’s one catch, it’s going to take one hour to drive there, but I do get to be in the car with my friends. We are going to the Bates County Museum where we will learn about the Battle of Island Mound. I’m going to learn a lot! 

There’s even an old school. It’s awesome! You guys should come and check out this place sometime! 

The woman’s name that’s showing us around is Peggy Buhr. We watched a 20 minute video about the Battle of Island Mound that happened during the Civil War. 

Then we went upstairs to see the museum. It is the best. It has bullets, swords, and pistols. We learned that in the 1860’s some people wanted slavery and some people didn’t want slavery. 

The Battle of Island Mound was an epic battle! It was the first time black soldiers fought in the Civil War.

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Today is going to be great! Today we are going to do social studies, math, a mask break, and the best part of the day is going to be the speaker. I’m sure you are wondering, who is the speaker? Mrs. Koch’s previous students are going to come and talk about their careers! We are also learning about Bloom’s six Levels of Thinking: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and Evaluation.  Wow!

We had a fun mask break. 

Did I tell you we are making our own faces so we can put them outside our classroom? 

We went outside and we are listening to the speaker tell us about his career as a herpetologist. He studies amphibians and reptiles. The speaker who is showing us the animals is Brock Lorenzen. He wanted to bring some snakes with him but they weren’t coming out because it is fall and they went underground. 

He showed us a raccoon skull, an elephant tail hair bracelet, porcupine quills, deer antlers, a snake skin, and a turtle shell.

Our Learning Pod shirts arrived today too. 

Friday, October 9, 2020 

We are doing our self portraits today. 

We added hair, eyes, mouth nose, ears, eyelashes and freckles to our self portraits. At our mask break we played freeze tag. 

I like the other people in the pod so much! Dashiell and Griffin’s mom showed us a few books to learn more about enslaved people. We learned a lot about Ona Judge’s story. 

Did I tell you that this classroom is the best? We have everything we need! Oh my gosh, the self portrait was so much work! They are going to look so good in our display!