Happy Chinese New Year!

Victoria's mom, Lisa, came to visit our class on Friday to teach us all about the Chinese New Year.  We learned that the Chinese New Year is based on the lunar (moon) calendar, so the date changes each year.  This year, it fell on Monday, January 23, and the celebration lasts for two whole weeks.

Lisa gave us information about the animals of the Chinese zodiac calendar.  We learned that this year is the year of the Dragon.  Many of the students in our class were born in the year of the Horse, and some were born in the year of the Snake.  Mrs. Vanegas is a horse, Ms. Rippe is an ox and Ms. Juliette is a dog.  Do you think your personality fits your zodiac animal?

Lisa also read us a legend from Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and we discussed what this story teaches the reader about destiny.  Then, we had a chance to practice writing Chinese characters and even got our hóngbāo (red envelope) with special candy inside.

Thank you so much to Victoria and Lisa for sharing with us!  新年快樂 (Happy New Year!)

January Book Review Challenge

Mrs. Vanegas and Ms. Rippe decided to offer an optional monthly book report as a way to push the thinking of our readers and give students an opportunity to share about some of the great books they are reading.  Almost half of Class 4-309 stepped up to the challenge and completed this extra assignment in January!  On Friday, we came together to discuss our books and enjoy some special treats.  We had some great conversations about our books and got some ideas about what to read next.  We can't wait to meet again next month!

Fabulous Fifties!

Last Thursday, we celebrated the 1950s with a special dress up day.  We had a great time and helped the fifth graders raise money for their senior activities.  Check out our poodle skirts and motorcycle jackets!

Mrs. Vanegas & Ms. Rippe...all ready for the sock hop!

Special (furry!) Choice Time Guest

On Friday afternoon, Milo's dad brought in his pet dwarf rabbit Giorgio to share with us.  Milo told us all about what makes dwarf rabbits special and how you take care of them.  We all enjoyed watching Giorgio explore the carpet.  He seemed right at home and made lots of new friends in Room 309!

Choice time blogger weekly update

Hello! Today is Friday January 13th. Today we celebrated Ashley's 10th Birthday! We had some awesome cupcakes.

This week, in social studies we have been reading books about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other important Civil Rights leaders. Today we watched a video when Martin said the "I have a dream speech." Afterwards we wrote about what his dream was and discussed whether it had come true.

In writing, we have been doing our all about books. We have been practicing taking notes and transferring them into each section of our research..----Abigail---- (with help from Macy & Ms. Rippe!)

Birds of Prey

Today, we had some very special guests in the gym.  Look carefully at this picture...

It's a bird! It's a plane!  No--it's really a bird!

We were visited by Talons!, a special assembly about birds of prey.  We met a real falconeer and learned all about taking care of these birds.  We also got to see a raven and a hawk up close, and even got to pet the talons of an owl!

For more information about the program, you can visit http://www.talonsbirdsofprey.com/TALONS!/Welcome.html. Special thanks to Mr. Wynne for inviting us to the assembly.  It was a very memorable science class!

Choice Time weekly bloggers

Today is January 6th 2012!  What's your New Years Resolution?  We have 2 new students Alexa and Stephanie.  Alexa is from Ms. Lazar's class and Stephanie from Ms. Molina's class.---Stephanie

Hey! :) This month we're making our New Year's resolutions. We took some time to write our resolutions and make resolutions for our class, home and our personal lives too. Some of our papers are outside in-front of the classroom. Hope you had an awesome New Year's!---Abigail :)

Our New Writing Pieces

This month, we are  writing information books to teach people about our topics.  Some people are writing  about big cats, Abraham Lincoln, soccer, race car driving, and monkeys.  Today we wrote our table of contents.  Next, we will begin to write each chapter, adding information from our research.  We can't wait to share what we know!
--Alexa (& Ms. Rippe)