Winter Writing and Winter Party

On Friday Ms. Abro led the children in a collaborative writing activity called "Snowball Writing".  Ask your child to tell you about it! It was a big hit.

A huge thank you to Anna Mignery and the Greasehabers for organizing our fabulous Winter Party, as well as donating extra books for the very fun Book Exchange.  We all had a great time.  Also, big thanks to all the parents who donated snacks and supplies for the party, and to those who dropped by to celebrate with us!

Thank you all so much for your kind and thoughtful gifts.  I wish you all a happy, warm, and relaxing tim together with your wonderful children! 

How Communities Change

In Social Studies with Mrs. Brennan, the students have been learning about how communities get bigger, what we do when they get smaller and buildings are left behind, and how people in communities solve problems when they disagree.  ("Old Henry" helped us...and Mr. Court read them this book!)

More Magnets and Measurement

This week in Science the students learned what it means for two magnets to "repel" each other.  Some students made the connection to the words "bug repellent" and "water repellent jackets", etc. 

In Math this week we read the book "How Big is a Foot?" and used actual 12 inch paper feet to measure objects around the room.

A few students shared their book reviews with the class this week:

Telling Time

Learning to tell time can be a tricky skill, but very rewarding in the real world, once mastered.  Last week we learned what a.m. and p.m. stand for (in Latin): 

a.m. = "ante meridian" which means "before midday"

p.m. = "post meridian" which means "after midday"

We've discussed the way in which time is an example of a cycle, where the hour hand travels around and around the clock.  But also that some people think of time as being linear, especially when planning out their day and thinking about schedules.

On Friday we played "I Spy" and went on a telling-time scavenger hunt.  Students found paper clocks around the school and recorded the times they displayed.

Book Reviews, Magnets and Place Value

This week Ms. Abro has begun teaching the children about book reviews.  The children have learned the difference between opinion and fact, and that book reviews usually contain a summary of the book, as well as the reader's opinion about the book.  Today the children broke into groups of three and read a story together, and then gave their opinion on the book, backing it up with evidence.  Soon the students will be writing their own reviews!

In Science the students have continued their exploration of magnets. This week they tested magnets through materials such as plastic, paper, fabric, water, etc, to see if the magnets would still work with one of these materials in between the magnet and magnetic object.  The also tested different types of magnets (horseshoe, bar magnet, donut magnet) to see which was the strongest.

In Math this week we have been working on place value, practicing representation of three digit numbers with base ten blocks. In addition to this relationship, we are learning about expanded notation.  So for 157 (below), expanded notation would look like this:

100 + 50 + 7 = 157