The past 2 weeks we learned about citizenship. We learned citizens are people who live and work in a community. They also learned citizens have a responsibility to help other people. Students realized each citizen has a different role to play in our community.
Keeping with that theme, students worked in groups to create a "neighborhood" through drawings on large paper. Throughout the process, they discovered stores and restaurants are there not only for our enjoyment but for people to work at and help people meet their basic needs (food, clothing, shelter). Students also learned that each person in their group contributed something different to the drawings they created. For example, one student enjoyed drawing the people in the community, but did not feel confident drawing clothes on the people (that is a law, after all - to wear clo). Another students in the group volunteered to draw the clothes on the people. Check out our cooperation!
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The past few weeks we have studied animals through exploration at the pond to research in books and online. I can share some of our final products about animals! First, we wrote our own books about an animal of our choosing. check out the pictures below for some sample pages! We completed a fun assessment to discover all we learned about frogs through a website called TodaysMeet. The students posted various facts they learned about frogs. See below for our posts!
*spelling is directly from students* This week we played Bingo and had popcorn! The entire class earned this opportunity. Throughout the month of September, each student had a goal to earn 30 or more Timbertail Tokens. We do this by following "The Timebertail Way." This includes three general expectations: Be Safe Be Respectful Be Responsible Check out the pictures from Bingo and Popcorn! Mallory was our first winner! Gavin was our second! This week we are researching animals and creating a book based on our research. I hope to share these books with you next week!
These photos can be viewed on my photobucket site: http://s1120.beta.photobucket.com/user/sarashar/library/2012-2013%20School%20Year Notice this web address has changed. The password is still the same. We had a wonderful time at Barkhausen! Here's a little bit of what we did while we were there: We started our day digging in the pond and removing critters for study under the microscope. If you look closely, you can see a frog! After lunch we visited the nature center. Here we touched many different creatures. Holding a salamander. Next we went on a nature walk. Here we tasted trees... ...some tasted better than others. Finally, we went on a scavenger hunt. We had to find things that are slimy, orange and yellow, and even things that tickle! Here are pictures of each group:
Let's share the strategies we used during writing this week:
1. We learned how to "push sounds" to sound out words we don't know. 2. We focused on the word "in" and words that rhyme with it. 3. We wrote about the beginning and end of stories we read together and independently. 4. When we finish writing a piece we check for our 5 star sentence. 5. Create Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast 2 items (animals and people; things in the pond and things by the pond). 6. We wrote in our journals daily about topics such as super-powers and if they had a choice would they to go to work or school. This week we will wrap up our first math unit - making partners. The students have done a wonderful job completing their homework each night. They are responsible for returning their homework the next day and placing it in the "homework mailbox." We used cubes to create partners of 9... 9=4+5 9=2+7 and 9=9+0 ...and partners of 10. 10=6+4 or 10=5+5 10=5+5 This week we started our handwriting program. We learned a quick and easy way to pick up our pencil and when we write our letters, we always start at the top. Here are the songs we learned:
Pencil Grasp Where do you start your letters? This week we learned a lot of new routines! SO far we've learned: Read to Self Word Work Work on Writing Lining Up Gathering Space Expectations (large group) Math Routine Singing Bowl (what to do when bell rings) Fast Finisher Indoor Recess Bathroom and Drink Dismissal Many More! The student's favorite routine happens during dismissal. After they line up... We play a game or two. One is called, "I'm Thinking of Someone" when I give hints about a person I'm thinking of (the first three hints are in line, quiet, and facing forward) and eventually we end with a student who followed the line expectations the entire time. If we have less than a minute before dismissal, we play "The Rock Game" where the students try to be the best rock. Believe it or not this is their favorite! It's a nice quiet end to our day to get us prepared for the bus/walking/Champions/pick up. Beyond the games and procedures, we've learned a lot about plants. This includes the parts, what a plant needs to survive, and the life cycle.
In math we studied the partners of 5 as well as counting as 5 and some more. This serves as a building block to working with 10s. We were introduced to the 10 stick as well. Your child should know what that is! All in all it has been a busy week and we learned a lot! We have had a busy and exciting first week! As we settle into our school routine, we are learning new things along the way. This week we learned about writing a 5 Star Sentence and we were introduced to our journals. In math we explored manipulatives and played number sense games. In content we learned the parts of a plant. We we reviewed how to "Read to Self" during Daily 5 (since we did this in Kindergarten) and practiced. We can read quietly and independently for 3 whole minutes! That's difficult to do with your best friend sitting next to you :) Below are a few pictures of what we've been doing. Have a wonderful weekend! |
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April 2014
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