I apologize for not updating you all last week. I was glued to a Kleenex box and cup of tea in hand all weekend! Math: We started learning about division. It is still a rather foreign concept to most students but we will get there! Some of them were amazed at what the division sign looked like! Students practiced drawing pictures to help them solve division problems. They also began to see how division and multiplication are fact families. We will continue solving multiplication and division problems. See the picture to help you understand how we are teaching both concepts. Literacy: We are continuing to work on strategies that help us understand what we are reading. Students learned about inferences this week. They also learned about the importance of checking for comprehension at the end of each chapter by asking themselves a few questions: 1.) Who is in this part? 2.) Where is the character? 3.) What is the character doing? I recommend you having your child answer these questions when they are finished with their at home reading. If they have any difficulty answering them, it is usually an indicator the book they are reading is too difficult. Writing: The past two weeks students generated a variety of stories. They started a new story each day so that they would have a selection of stories to choose from to improve in the future. Narratives can be a tough one for students but they are powering through them and filling their pages with stories! They were very eager to share theirs with the class this past week. So cute to watch, too!
Science: We are working on the central idea: Heredity and environment influence appearance and behavior. As a class we dissected the central idea to put it in our own words. We moved from looking at the inherited traits and acquired traits of people to plants. Students participated in a mystery science inquiry activity where they learned how another flower produces more flowers. A student in our class asked a follow up question about how do sunflowers produce more sunflowers if they have seeds in the middle of them. A very interesting question! So, we investigated. Students brought sunflowers, I gave them books, and we figured it out! We had flower petals all over the classroom, but we had a lot of fun!
0 Comments
Students are doing great getting into the swing of things and figuring out our classroom procedures and schedules. We took this week to continue our Social and Emotional Learning during our Wednesday family meeting. Students learned how positive thoughts often lead to positive feelings and positive actions but negative thoughts tend to lead to negative thoughts and actions. A parent letter came home explaining our second unit that our class will be working through. Attached was a picture of person that helped out with our class activity. This is a great activity to use at home with your child! I gave the following example to students: Situation: Mom or dad asks you to clean your room. Negative Thought: I don't want to do that. It is boring. This leads to a negative feeling: Annoyed, frustrated. Which leads to a negative action: Child talks back to parent and shows disrespect. We then discussed if it is possible to change a negative thought to a positive one. Our class all agreed YES! We then replayed out the same situation changing our initial negative thought to a positive one. Positive Thought: It is my bedroom or mom and dad could use my help. This leads to a positive feeling: Helpful Which leads to a positive action: Child cleans room This is a great strategy use at home. This is something we will be using in the classroom to continue discussion around our thoughts influencing our feelings and actions positively or negatively. I encourage you to help turn your child's negative thoughts around to positive ones! The visual is a great way to help. Math: We started learning about multiplication this week. Students learned how multiplication is repeated addition. Students drew pictures to solve basic multiplication problems. Students are also learning that the first factor in multiplication stands for the number of groups, while the second number stands for the number in each group. For example: 3 x 4 stands for three groups times four objects in each of those groups.
Ask your child: Can you write a multiplication sentence for 2 + 2 + 2 + 2? They should answer with 4 x 2 because there are four groups of two. Reading: We started our first reading unit learning how to make reading the best it could be. Students learned it is important to find a good reading spot, choose books they love, read books like they are gold, and to talk about books! We practiced finding the perfect reading spot and staying there! This group of students sure love to read! I am excited for their enthusiasm they have towards reading!! Ask your child: How does a curmudgeon read? It would be awesome if they could demonstrate it for you using their current reading book! Writing: Students started writing in their journals! They have been eager to share their stories whether they are true or made up! Students practiced building their writing stamina and writing more than they did the day before. Science: Students learned about inherited traits and learned behaviors this week. They should be able to identify between the two of them. We did a few different activities to help us differentiate between the two. Our focus this week was on the traits of people. Our next focus will be on the traits of plants. Ask your child: Is "reading a book" an inherited trait or learned behavior? They should answer with learned behavior. Reminder: -Popcorn Friday is this week! We began making our way into our "normal" routine this week. Students started to get a feel of what our typical schedule will look like throughout the year. We continued to get to know one another and support each other's similarities and differences. We had a couple class family meetings this week. One to decide on our class name and motto and the other to teach a partner how to do something they are good at. Our class came up with the name Road Runners and our motto is "Don't Stop Running Until You Reach The Top." We are going to live out our class motto this year and my hope is that you can incorporate this motto in your home as well. :) Students also had the opportunity to bring in supplies to teach a partner how to do something. This is one of the best activities I have seen students participate in. We had everything from learning how to do magic tricks, to making slime, dance moves, drawing, and so many other great ones!! See slideshow of pictures below. Ask Your Child: What did your partner teach you how to do? Math: Students were given two real life situations: one involving the grocery store and one involving postage stamps. In the first scenario students were given a picture of items at the grocery store. Students had to explain how they got the total amount of different items pictured in the grocery store. It was interesting to see their thinking and how students all added (some multiplied) to get the total number. They showed so many different strategies. The picture below is what the pair of students received. You can see the multiple items students were required to get the total of. Another day students were given a paper containing postage stamps of different values. They worked with a partner again to explain their thinking about how they got the total amount. The purpose of these lessons were for students to recognize repeated addition and to see the connection between repeated addition and multiplication.
Reading: Our classroom library was opened! Students were eager to "book shop" and get their noses in a book. We discussed as a class what problems readers might encounter while reading and what they could do to solve them. Students found their reading spot and began reading! I was excited to see their enthusiasm around wanting to read. :) Students made me a wish list of books they wanted to see in our classroom and because I love supporting their wish for books, I found them! I can't wait for them to be in their hands! It was also great to meet many of you on Curriculum Night. Thank you for being an integral part of your child's education! I am looking forward to partnering with you this year! |
Sept. 14th- First Day of Online Learning
|