Mrs. Chrystall: Happy Friday! And I literally mean HAPPY!

This morning on my drive to Oak Park from the city, I heard Pharrell's song "Happy." As I was singing along in the car and dancing, I decided to take the theme and run with it. We started our morning by listening to it a few times on repeat while we unpacked our supplies and got ready for the day. Then, we ended up having a 4th grade Zumba party during indoor recess to stay active; I made sure to do the Zumba to "Happy" on GoNoodle. It's not all a coincidence though. First of all, I am so happy with the school year. We really have been learning and growing so much. I can't believe we have only been in fourth grade a little over month. It's been such a positive experience that there is nothing to feel but happiness. More importantly, we are starting a new essay in Writers Workshop next week. The topic is "I'm Happy." I am really looking forward to developing our writing skills further and learning about what makes the Chrystall Miners truly happy!

Next week we have many new things to look forward to. We finished our science unit with a test on Magnetism and Electricity today. So that means next week we will start a four week social studies unit. We will begin exploring geography with an emphasis on states, landforms, and regions. In addition to that we will begin weekly spelling words to improve our knowledge of spelling patterns. I will send an email to parents with more information regarding this later in the week. For homework next week, kids will be color coding the states they have been to and the states they want to go to. Your child may need some help remembering the states they have experienced in their lives. In reading, we are going to take an assessment covering point of view on Monday. The kids are expected to compare and contrast the point in two stories and of course use details from the text as evidence. After that, we will be beginning our work on summarizing and theme in reading. I've noticed the kids can retell a story well but struggle with being succinct when summarizing.

Here are some other exciting activities that happened with The Chrystall Miners this week!