We have started our new PYP unit, How the World Works. We will be learning about how force and motion, natural disasters, and time and measurement are important components of how our world works. Science: Rather than starting off this unit by telling the students that force and motion are prevalent in creating natural disasters, students through the process of inquiry and communication, were able to uncover that central idea. Students completed a picture sort to help them arrive at our central idea. I laid on the carpet a collage of pictures. The collage included pictures about force, motion, and natural disasters. Students sorted the pictures into categories. After agreeing with one another they named their three categories: force, natural disasters, and push/pull. I was very impressed they communicated with one another to arrive at just three categories. After they categorized the pictures, I gave each student a sticky note in which they had to ask any question (otherwise known as be an inquirer) about the pictures. We then took those sticky notes and put them into two categories: force and natural disasters. There was just one sticky note left that students debated back and forth where it should go. It was after more discussion and some deep thinking students began to realize, oh wait, force is also a part of the cause of natural disasters. This is exactly where I wanted them to end up! What a wonderful way for students to learn something new and take responsibility for their learning! See our pictures below. Math: We continued working with representing time on a number line. We looked at how we can use number lines to help us find either a(n) start time, stop time, or elapsed time. On Friday we began to look at how kilograms are a unit of measurement. We talked about how kilo is a prefix and that is means 1,000. Students were able to gather that there are 1,000 grams in one kilogram. We will be continuing work with kilograms and grams this week. Please be looking over your child's math warm-ups as they come home. If they are getting a check or minus on them, please do your best to help them correct their mistakes. If you are still needing help with your child's homework remember to visit the math section of my website. There are great resources there.
Writing: Students began composing their personal narratives by starting with their first paragraph. Students learned that paragraphs are indented and that writing is not just one lump of words but broken up into paragraphs. Using their writing planners and brainstorming sheets, students began to piece together their first paragraph. We will continue to write our stories remembering to include information about what we saw, felt, tasted, heard, smelled and write as if we are writing a movie. Literacy: We continued to learn about different prefixes and how they help us with understanding the meaning of the words, which then can help us understand what is happening in the books we are reading. On Friday, we then read Scholastic News to learn about a new frog that has been discovered. Students answered questions using evidence from the text. Students need to get comfortable with providing evidence from texts to prove their answer. This is a necessary skill! This week students' behaviors were much poorer than normal. I am not sure if it was because of such a weird week but please continue to remind your child that they need to come to school with appropriate behavior and be ready to learn. They reflected on their behavior on Friday and even said that they had been talking too much and were failing to listen in specials as well. Thanks for all of your support at home with this as well. Warmly, Miss Hodgkinson Comments are closed.
|
Sept. 14th- First Day of Online Learning
|