Our students have been tuning in to, finding out and sorting out lots of information about the solar system. I have been impressed with the wealth of information they already had about the solar system and pleased with their interest.

In our language arts class, all students will be writing a non-fiction book about the planet or space body of their choice. Today, we looked at many different non-fiction books and listed the following features of non-fiction books:

Non-fiction books have:

- facts, not opinions

- a title

- information organized in paragraphs and chapters

- photographs with captions

- diagrams with labels

- sometimes maps, tables, and charts

- sometimes an index

- sometimes a glossary

Our non-fiction books will have these features. Next week, we will gather facts for our books and the week after that we will be writing and revising drafts. The final publishing will be done by Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Fang. Stay tuned for an invitation to our book launch party!

We are now in the Tuning In phase of our Solar System unit. Today, we went to the computer lab to learn how to access the magnificent photographs taken by the Hubble Telescope.

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/ is the address for the Hubble's photo gallery. Take a look at how beautiful and mysterious space is. Ask your second grader how to download pictures for screen viewing or for printing. All Hubble telescope photographs are free for downloading, but if you are using them in any way, you should be sure to credit the site.

Seung Hwan today found this very good website that shows different organs of your body. Click here to see the index of organs. You can find photos of the liver and the stomach, among others.

In library time today, Mrs. Gourley challenged us to find the magic in the library! It's easy, you use the keyword "magic" in the online library catalog, and you get a long list of books with the word magic in the title or anywhere in the book.

Can you use the library catalog from home? Yes, you can. I have the link here in the blogroll (scroll down and look on the left) and on the Edline page. You can also find it at the school website, www.istianjin.org, under the School Life tab. You will then need to click on the knocker marked "Home Use".

And another magical link that I promised to post was the one for the Click-n-Play Hidden Pictures. Just click here. I have also posted this link in the blogroll for this page and under the Links section of Edline.