Grandparents day was a success! It was nice meeting all of them. Some of them had wonderful stories to tell and it was good to see the students comparing school now to school back in the day. Spring break is officially upon us. I can tell that we're all excited and ready as everyone is wiggly. Over the break they will have a math packet and a reading log.
Math: This week we moved into one of our smaller topics, which is on polygons and their attributes. They are learning what quadrilaterals are and how they are alike/different. They are learning how although the shapes are all quadrilaterals, they all stand alone/apart as well. For example, a trapezoid and a rectangle are both quadrilaterals, however a trapezoid only has 1 pair of parallel lines instead of 2. They are also learning about triangles and right angles. The topic is only 3 lessons, so we will take a small quiz Friday after we play a math game on everything that we've talked about (multiplication, division, fractions, area, and polygons). I am aiming to make this week relaxing and fun as it is our last time together before spring break. Reading: This week is another smaller review week with the addition of newer things. We are spending some more time on characters point of view, but we are also learning how to compose their own point of view. This makes for great discussions as we can then compare the different point of views. We are also are reviewing realistic fiction, which they like because it allows them to examine their own lives and compare it to what we're reading. The essential question for the week is how can we reuse what we already have? The stories that we're reading involve stories in which children reuse things they already have, which allowed for a great discussion on why we recycle, what we should recycle, and what could be created from these recycled things. For grammar we are studying subject and object pronouns. We are also taking another look at homonyms, homophones, and homographs, with a hard focus on homographs. Important Date:
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It's only day two and it has already been a rollercoaster. Today they were able to travel around the world and learn about different countries. They were able to try different snacks/foods, toys, artifacts and collect different stamps for their passports. I encouraged them to bring their passports home, so feel free to ask them about the different countries they learned about. Some of the countries were: Italy, Japan, China, Iran, Netherlands, Sweden, Ghana, and France.
Math: We have reached the end of our topic 12. They last two lessons were kind of confusing because it teaches them to read their rulers in two different ways. Yesterday we looked at the ruler having 4 equal parts between 0 and 1. Today they had to look at the ruler having 2 equal parts between 0 and 1. This was hard for them because they were use to seeing the ruler "regularly." We will spend some time going over ruler mechanics, and learning to read the ruler to the nearest half inch and nearest 1/4 inch. Wednesday we will review what we covered, and do some practice problems, before moving onto the practice test. We will start the practice test together and they will finish it for homework. They will take the math test on Thursday, which I have already made amendments too. Reading: With the crazy week that we have, I am kind of glad that this week is a review week. We've covered theme and P.O.V a lot over the school year. So, these things should not be a surprise or a struggle for them, but more like a review. We have also covered root words, and compound words, so we will not spend a whole lot of time on those. We are studying fairy tales, and how most of them have a message that the reader should learn. We discussed the different clues we should look for, when discussing if a text is expository, historical fiction, folktale, or fairy tale. In grammar, we are studying singular and plural pronouns. We practiced saying things without the use of pronouns, and that helped us gage just how important they are to our everyday lives. We will take our spelling test Thursday, and a revised version of our reading test. Friday will be strictly dedicated to the Grandparents Day activities. Science: In science, we are studying the earth, and it's surfaces. Friday and Monday we discussed how landforms are created, how volcanoes and earthquakes create holes in the earth's crust, which is bad for everyone. We started talking about weathering and how weathering effects the earth's surface as well. Our next field trip will be science base, however I am waiting for it to get warmer. I am thinking middle of April. I will get you the details soon. Important Dates:
Report cards are being sent out this week. Please expect to see them next week. Next week is Lutheran School Week, and Grandparents Day. The students should have all brought home a flyer for what the dress up day categories are. I will do my best to remind them, and send reminders on classdojo.
Math: We have made it to the halfway mark of the new topic. Fractions seems to be really easy for them. They are being exposed to fractions in three different ways, shapes, number lines, and actual fraction with the numerator over the denominator. I think it would do them all some good to do some extra practice with identifying and writing fractions at home. Some of them still confuse the numerator and denominator, while others confuse the shaded part of the fraction and the unit fraction. The book taught them that the unit fraction represents one pieces, one section, one part of he fraction, so the numerator should be one. However friends still are confusing that with the actual part of the shape that is shaded. Friday we will take a quiz to cover what we've done so far. That will let me know if we need to pause and review, or if we're good to continue. Reading: This week we are reading poems. We are reviewing free verse poems, and learning about narrative poems. Today we read three different poems, and compared them. We looked for rhyme patterns, figurative language examples, stanza, lines/line patterns, and we discussed what the poem was teaching us. The essential question is how can others inspire us. We spent some time talking about the people that inspire us, and how they inspire us. After reading one of the poems, we discussed how the poem is telling us that no matter how small you are, you can do anything you set your mind to, and that just because you are small, doesn't mean that someone bigger is better than you. The discussions we had today were really great, and I'm sure they are only going to get better. I do plan to have us read other poems, outside of the curriculum, so they can continue to see what we're learning in action. Social Studies: Presentations are finally done. They all were amazing and I think they all really learned a lot! I do plan to have the projects outside of the classroom on the table, so they will not come home just yet. I cannot fit all 16 out at the same time, so I will rotate them out and them send them home. Today in class they all came up with test questions, and extra credit questions that they would like to see on the test. Tomorrow we will create a study guide for the test, which will be Friday. Important dates:
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