October 21 - 25th

This week we continued our explorations of Life Cycles by learning about the life cycle of a human, beginning with the embryo and growing to adulthood:

We compared and contrasted the life cycles of various living things, including amphibians, insects and plants.  We discussed how some "babies" look very similar in shape/body parts to the adult version, such as mammals, while others (such as frogs) look very different as they grow.

Life cycle of a housefly:

Life cycle of a bean plant:

Life cycle of a frog:

We also took a look at animal mother and their babies, and noticed how some change in color of feathers or fur, and other babies look like a miniature version of the mother!  We had several children out sick or who needed to leave early on Friday afternoon, so if you would like to show the slideshow we viewed to your child, please follow this link:

(click on the text)

Animal Mothers & Babies

This week in Math we did a lot of clock work!! The students made take home clocks with the minutes written in at each increment of 5, to help with time telling.  We have also been working on Base Ten and place value:

Sam & William each shared some highlights from their family trips with the class:

Author's Chair:

(students sharing their own stories from Writer's Workshop)

A funny Halloween story:

A funny skiing story:

October 14 - 18th

 This week we wrapped up our unit on how goods are made.  We turned the classroom into a mini factory as the students worked in assembly lines to create "Clown Maze" games for each child to take home.

We also read a book by Aliki called "How a Book is Made" which shows the process of publishing a book and how many different people and steps are involved. We have several books available to help us discover how various good are made and make their way to the stores. (below)  The children have been very excited to explore these real world topics.

In Math we have been working on "Frames and Arrows" problems:

Sharing the strategy of working backwards through the frames when the rule is subtraction rather than addition:

We have also been working with "function machines" and In/Out charts.  Please read the math family notes in your child's homework folder, one of which will explain this concept in more detail.

Another topic we have been exploring in math is weight: measuring how heavy or light something is.  We have been practicing with a tool that helps us compare the weight of two objects, called a pan balance:

We are also learning about spring scales, which measure in pounds or grams. This is the same design as the scales at the grocery store that we use to weigh our produce, just a smaller version.

 Instead of a bowl hanging from the bottom, with the spring scale we use a plastic bag attached to the hook:

 

 

Author/Illustrator team Tristan & Savannah sharing their book, "Speedy"!

 

Sharing fascinating facts about beetles, Conrad got the whole class very curious about these seemingly creepy creatures!

 

Class read-alouds for the week:

October 7 - 11th

 

This week the children continued our exploration on fish by doing some research with partners, and then sharing their findings with the class:

Students played the game of Memory with a partner using their spelling words.  Rather than making an exact match as in the traditional version, the children looked for matches by pattern. 

Ex: for the Whales:

goat and road are a match, because they both have an "oa" that makes a long o sound

Ex. for the Dolphins:

taking and chewing are not a match, because the "e" in "take" is dropped before adding -ing, but "chew" needs no change before adding "ing"

Ex. for the Porpoises:

"hug" and "tug" are matches because they both have the short u sound

 Fact Triangle partner practice: (Please see the family note about Fact triangles in your child's homework folder.)

One child covers any number and his/her partner would say, "4 + 7 = 11"

Here, the child would say "6 - 3 = 3"

 

 This week we visited the beautiful Outdoor Learning Center for the first time for writing time.  The children loved the calm and peaceful environment.  We plan to return often for various types of independent and group activities.

 

This week in Social Studies we continued our discussion of goods and services by exploring where our own clothes are made.  The students made observations about which parts of the world seem produce more clothing. On this particular day, no one was wearing clothing from the USA.  Several children had clothing made in China and Bangladesh.  Children learned about countries that some had never heard of before, such as Nicaragua, Haiti and Indonesia.  Some students noticed that one clothing brand produced clothing in two different countries, very far apart from one another.

 Students can sometimes even be found doing work at recess, by their own choice!

The second graders from the Hep/Dep classes went on their field trip to the Gravel Pit this week, and Mr. Szczygiel  (our district's amazing environmental education leader) lent them a very interesting sphere making machine.  We visited Ms. Hepner's classroom on Friday to take a look at the machine, and learn about the process.  Raw rock is first cut into a 26 faceted roughly sphere like shape, then placed into the machine with grit  and water dripping over it while it is rotated to create a perfect polished sphere.  Click the last image to view a short video of the machine in action.

 

 A fun read-aloud!

Sharing a story written at home:

An exotic snack: rambutan!

September 30th - October 4th

Thank you to everyone who has been able to send in empty milk jugs!  We need about 8 more, so please continue to send more in as you finish them and I will let you know when we have enough.  Thank you to Cordelia's mom, Susan, who is joining us for weekly Math help.  We have a parent coming in four out of five days each week, which is more parent participation than I've ever had!  We are very lucky to have so much support. 

We had a terrific time on our field trip to the Jiffy Mix Factory in Chelsea! We were able to learn about how a factory works, and see it in action.  This was our introduction to our social studies unit on goods and services.  We also were able to see many rural areas in Chelsea on our drive in.  Thank you to Takuto's mom, Satako, and Eric's mom, Mary, who joined us as chaperones on this trip!  

  

 

Enjoying mini muffins!

  

Unfortunately taking photographs was prohibited in the factory itself, but if you would like to take a peek there is a "virtual tour" available under the "about us" tab on the Jiffy website:  http://www.jiffymix.com/  Luckily, I was able to get a few shots of the kiddos in their hair nets before we entered the plant. I couldn't resist including all the shots, although I must tell you that some of your children did NOT want to be photographed, and made sure to duck out of my view when they saw the camera! :)

 

The children had a lovely time at Timber Town Park after lunch!

  

 

 

  

We returned from our field trip to discover that one of our fish had babies!! By the end of the day there were 25 guppies, but sadly only six survived. We are trying to take good care of them!  This tied in nicely with our Life Cycles unit in science and the children are very curious about learning more about how fish are born, especially since we were all surprised by this!  

We will be exploring this topic in the coming weeks.

In Math we are looking at patterns with doubles facts (shaded in purple) and +9 facts (shaded in green).  We are also talking about "Fact Power", which is using the facts you know to help you solve other facts.

For example:  If you know fairly quickly that 5 + 5 = 10, then when you see

5 + 6, you can think "5 + 5, just one more!"

We are working on strategies with +9 facts as well.

9 + 1 = 10

9 + 2 = 11

9 + 3 = 12

9 + 4 = 13

etc.

We listed all the sums from 1 to 9 and discovered that when looking at the sums, the digit in the ones place is always one less than the number being added to 9.

Another trick is as follows:

When you see 9 + 4, instead think "10 + 4, but just one less!"  Most children know their +10 facts more automatically than +9, so this is a helpful strategy for many of them to use.

Like anything, we are exploring a wide variety of strategies on a daily basis and children love to share their own strategies by coming up to the board and demonstrating.  I always try to encourage the children to try out new strategies when they are doing their independent work, because they may find one that really works well for them.  However,  I make sure to tell them that there is no strategy that is better or worse, and much of it depends on individual preference and how all our brains work differently! 

Playing our latest Math game, "Doubles or Nothing":

This week we had "Author's Chair" for the first time, where students shared finished pieces of writing with the class.  We worked as an audience on giving constructive feedback as we had practiced last week with writing buddies. This week's author's were Jaime, Conrad & Sam.

We also had two guest readers this week: