Generations

This week as part of our Life Cycles unit we have been learning about the word "generation", defined as all the children born to, or raised by, their parent or parents.  In a large family, the oldest generation may include all the great-grandparents and great-great aunts and uncles; the next generation includes the grandparents and great aunts and uncles; the third generation has all the parents, aunts and uncles; and the newest generation, the children (brothers/sisters) and cousins.

We created an example of a baby, her mother and grandmother on a timeline. We have also been reading books about families and discussing similarities and differences between our own families, including family structure and family traditions.

Yoga

You may have heard your child talk about Yoga Fridays. Every Friday morning we start the day with a simple pose from "The Yoga Deck" to begin our last day of the week with some calm and mindfulness!  Below is the "Tree" pose:

Buddy Writing

Today we had our first buddy writing session, where the children read each other stories they have written and gave each other feedback.  Some partners also began writing collaborative stories together.

Cave Formations

This week as a part of our Rock study, we read the following book and learned about cave formations called stalactites and stalagmites:

We also viewed some real photographs of limestone caves and both stalactites and stalagmites:

We also began our own experiment, attempting to create our own stalactites. Ask your child about what we put in the solution:

Name That Number

In our Everyday Math program, basic number operations are a huge part of what we do each day.  Math games are a fun way to help children practice these essential facts and make them more automatic.  In "Name That Number", children use one or more operations to name a target number.  See the photo below with more explanation. (You can always click on photos in the blog to make them appear larger.) The children have been loving this game!

Jiffy Mix!

We had a wonderful time on our field trip today to the Jiffy Mix factory and Timber Town!  Huge thanks to Michele Forbes (Levi's mom) and Sahira Kazanjian (Sarine's mom) for joining us as chaperones. Unfortunately photos were not permitted in the factory itself, but I was able to snap a few photos of the kids in their fancy hairnets before we entered! 

More Geology!

Today we were fortunate to have the two Mr. Schult's (Joseph's dad and grandfather) come to visit!  Joseph's dad talked to us about his work as an Environmental Geologist. We had an opportunity to look at geological maps he uses for his work.  Joseph's grandfather showed us several different maps that he used to use when he was in the Navy!  We will be learning about maps this year in Social Studies and this was a very exciting preview.

Today we also made imprints in moon sand to demonstrate how a fossil shows the cast or mold of a living thing.  We were lucky enough to borrow some of Mr. Yaeger's special findings, including coral, a deer vertebrae and a bird bone.

Here are some of the great books we have been reading to support our study on rocks and fossils:

Geometry

Today we used goeboards for the first time, creating our own goemetrical shapes and working with a partner to find possible lines of symmetry.  Partners then recorded their designs on dot paper.

Number Grid Games

This week we learned a very fun math version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", called "Pin the Number on the Number Grid".  Each student is blindfolded and then given a number on a sticky note, which they must try to place as close to the correct spot as possible using everything they know about patterns on the number grid.  After this, the students played the Number Grid board game in partners.