Week of Jan. 23rd

 We are starting to enjoy looking more closely at a poem a week. When we study a poem for the entire week, we have a chance to feel confident in our ability to analyze the poem and understand it on a deeper level. There are tons of benefits to reading poetry besides just comprehension. Reading poetry can help students with their fluency. There are opportunities to work on phrasing and expression; since poems are short, it is easy to reread them several times during the week. Poetry can also be a great way to engage and spark interest in a reluctant reader.

 

Winter’s Beauty

By William Henry Davies

 

Is it not fine to walk in spring,

When leaves are born, and hear birds sing?

And when they lose their singing powers,

In summer, watch the bees at flowers?

Is it not fine, when summer’s past,

To have the leaves, no longer fast,

Biting my heel where ever I go,

Or dancing lightly on my toe?

Now winter’s here and rivers freeze;

As I walk out I see the trees,

Wherein the pretty squirrels sleep,

All standing in the snow so deep:

And every twig, however small,

Is blossomed white and beautiful.

Then welcome, winter, with thy power

To make this tree a big white flower;

To make this tree a lovely sight,

With fifty brown arms draped in white,

While thousands of small fingers show

In soft white gloves of purest snow.

In Math we have been exploring 3-D shapes and identifying there vertices, edges and faces. We have also used this opportunity to learn about right angles and find right angles in 2-D shapes as well as shapes we can create. The grade 3's and 4's have been introduced and reviewing their knowledge of patterns (2,3,4, 5 and10) repeated addition and multiplication. Time was spent understanding what it means when we look for a product.