Do you know the capital of Alaska?

Arctic writing!

Since we are learning about the Arctic habitat and wild life, it made sense to learn a little about one of our own states that is partly within the arctic circle - Alaska! We learned about that state's symbols, and flag, and we read about a very important and famous dog in Alaska named Balto. Back in 1925 Balto saved the town of Nome, Alaska as he led the dogsled team in the final relay to Nome, braving a blinding snowstorm and frozen river to carry life saving medicine for a diphtheria outbreak. Each part of the journey was covered by the national news at the time, and there is a statue of Balto in NYC!

We had some fun with a play on words when we asked, 'Juneau the capital of Alaska?'. It sounded like, "Do you know..." but the fun was that the name of the capital was within the question. It brought a few laughs and smiles!

We also completed our Race to the Pole booklet which explained the early days of exploration in the arctic and included a chance to write as an explorer, packing our supplies and describing an experience. Kids love pretending and donning  different roles when they play or write.

Making our Race to the Poles booklet

Here is one of our friends who just organized and set up all our arctic animals in the class library:

Look how I grouped all the creatures!

Next week we will head to the South Pole and learn about penguins!

Our science unit on plants and animals opened with learning how people have used nature as an inspiration for design. After comparing similarities between birds and planes, we diverged to learn about some famous Americans - the Wright Brothers, who invented the first airplanes. Later one of our friends discovered a picture of the Wright  

Look I found the Wright Brothers!

Brothers in one of our books.
Curiosity and student led discovery are exciting. Here is a trio that wanted to share cool USA things they found as well.

The USA map, White House, and Mt. Rushmore

Even recess was a place to express interest in learning as these friends assembled a floor puzzle of the USA. 

Team work!

Speaking of teamwork, our How- To writing genre provided the perfect chance to work together in discussing steps and sharing the writing in how to do an activity decided on. Besides the writing involved, it was a great chance for collaboration and compromise. The finished products will be shared and displayed next week, but here they are working on them.

We like working up here

Some excited planning here!

We've planned out or steps to write about!

We are ready to illustrate!

Finishing touches!

Sharing ideas and work is definitely a highlight, and after poetry each week, we always have kids eager to share their work.

Peter, Peter Penguin poem

We closed out the week with some groundhog fun by watching the Weather Channel's video of Phil the Groundhog. Not surprisingly with this freezing weather we have had, it will be 6 more weeks of winter...

In the meantime join in with our cheering Patriots fans:

Go Pats!

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it. We have decorated Valentine's bags and hung them up. As kids bring in Valentines, they can drop them in the bags during recess, and we will open them on Valentine's Day. (I have extra valentines if someone forgets...) I will be sending home a Valentine's class list on Monday. 

Ready to be filled!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Dagley