In our latest science mystery, students learned about melting and the solid and liquid states of matter. We discovered why plastic was invented, as well as the "meltable" property of different kinds of candy.

Today in science we discussed the various reasons why we wear clothes. We observed and noticed the properties of different materials. We used our observations to help design and construct a hat that would help protect us from the sun.

A big thank you to our Westford firefighters for coming in and teaching us all about fire safety. We had the opportunity to see and hear their special equipment and to ask important questions. Does your family have a fire safety plan?

Our community is thrilled to welcome one of our members back. On Monday, we had the opportunity to meet with some of her team from Shriner's. We listened to information, asked questions and read a great book.

We are so happy you are back!

This month we have been working on building our comprehension, word solving strategies and fluency. We have focused on doing something at the end of our reading, like retelling the important events from the beginning, middle and end while using character names, going back in the text to find our favorite parts and using evidence from the text to talk about why. We have also worked on being persistent when solving tricky words and using more than one strategy to get the job done. Additionally, kids are practicing thier fluency when rereading and attending to puctuation.

This week, students have been busy writing their small moment stories. We have been working on stretching our stories out bit by bit, using detail and bringing our characters to life with action and dialogue. Check out some of our work!

Today we had our awesome nature teachers teach us all about leaves. We learned about different types of leaves (pinnate, palmate and parallel to name a few.) We had the opportunity to collect our own samples and we worked on sorting and identifying them. We also did some beautiful leaf rubbings.

We released our monarch butterfly earlier in the week. He was a male butterfly. He rested in a tree for a while, as it was quite chilly and in between rain showers. We wished him luck on his journey!

This morning we walked on the trails and observed an area that is inhabited by beavers. We also noticed the changes that are starting to happen all around us in nature.

This is part of our bountiful harvest from the garden this morning!

We ended our week with a pajama day celebration. We have worked hard to show safety, kindness and responsibility. We had 100% partcipation and a lot of fun!

On Thursday, we harvested from our class garden and used the veggies to help make a caprese salad. The finished product was served during lunch time to anyone who wanted to try a sample. In our class, we collected data the following day and more kids like the salad compared with those who did not.

Our caterpillar has turned into a chrysalis!