UPSL Pumpkins

Today Mrs. Wagner helped us to make UPSL pumpkins.  This pumpkin shows the strategy to use UPSL.  This helps us solve math problems.  The steps are:

1.  Read the problem

2.  Underline the question

3.  Circle important numbers and labels

4.  Make a statement out of the question

5.  List important numbers and labels

6.  Make a plan

7.  I will work through my plan

8.  I will show my work

9.  I will check my work by using a different strategy

10.  I will make sure my answers are reasonable

We took a practice benchmark and used all of these strategies.  You could use these steps to help you solve any problem.  You should try them.  We believed it helped us.

Dear Mr. Henshaw

This week we have been reading Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary for our novel study.  This book is about a boy, Leigh Botts, who writes to his favorite author.  We like this book because it has parts that are hilarious.  For example, Leigh makes up some funny songs about a shoe on the highway.  We are also writing letters like Leigh.  Our letters are to Mrs. Nelson about books that we are reading.  This is a text-to-self connection that we have made about the book.

Lets With Officer Coyle

Today we reviewed all of our Lets lessons with Officer Coyle. Lets stands for Law Enforcement Teaching Students.   Then we learned about what it means to be a true friend.  We also learned about peer pressure from friends.  This was the last Lets lesson so we received graduation certificates and erasers that say "make no mistake, lets be drug free."  We will miss Officer Coyle.

Neo Boards

Yesterday in Mrs. Nelson's class we took a pretest on Neo Boards.  Neo Boards are a tool to help you learn to type.  We had to type as much as we could in two minutes.  After that we printed out our test.  Next, we entered our name to track our progress.  Finally, we learned about the home row keys, ASDFJKL; .  It was awesome.  We hope to learn to type without looking like Mrs. Nelson does.  

Milestone Rewards

This week we took a Math Milestone.  We all worked hard and showed our work.  Because we showed our work, we earned pirate loot.  The people that earned a 100 got to go play puzzles and games while other students went over their milestone.  They also earned extra pirate treasure.  If you earn ten coins you get to reach in a treasure box full of goodies.  We are extremely excited about earning our pirate l00t.  Eleven students also earned a certificate for their hard work on this test.