Winter break is fast approaching, and we are trying to wrap up some units. That means we'll be having a few tests next week. I've sent home with your children outlines of what we'll be looking at assessing. This outline was developed with the kids. We discussed our topics and what we had covered. We discussed what would be fair for me to assess and what that assessment should look like. So, we'll be having some assessments in literacy, science, and math. In Math, we are working on a number of things and we're trying to bring them all together. We're combining our knowledge of arithmetic with the development of our understanding of word problems. This coming week, we'll be using the computers to type out good copies of our math test challenge (each child is making their own math test, and we'll administer it to our partner class, room 17, as time allows).

For a better idea of what we're doing in math and our approach, please take a look at this site: Youcubed.

In literacy, we'll be wrapping up our classroom read-aloud in probably a couple of weeks. After that, we'll begin a project using Google slides to tackle some of the issues we've been reading about in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We won't really dig into that, however, until January. We also continue to combine our writing and reading with as many other subjects as we can, from writing interesting math word problems to reading information about Peru and writing convincing arguments about questions posed.

In science, we'll be starting our rocks and minerals unit fairly soon. Right now, we're wrapping up our eco-column. Many of our mealworms have moved on to another plane of existence. We took the opportunity to dissect one. It was a fun and interesting activity. Our plants started off with a bang, but are now stagnating in their growth. Some are starting to fail. This has been a fun experiment and the children have truly enjoyed it.

In social studies, we have begun to examine information about quality of life in Peru. We are learning how access to services, as well as a well developed infrastructure (or lack thereof) can affect quality of life, even within a single city. We've been focusing on the discrepancies within the city of Lima, where some neighbourhoods have water, electricity, and paved roads, while others lack all of these.

Tune in next week for more pictures and videos! Sorry for this week's dearth. Technical difficulties :).