Halloween Fun

We had a wonderful time with our Halloween Parade and Party this afternoon!  Huge thanks to Matei's mom, Andreea, for organizing such a fun and engaging party.  Many thanks also to all the parents who sent in food and supplies for the party and/or attended the party to help make it so wonderful!

Fall Observations

On Thursday we continued our unit on Life Cycles by observing the trees in our outdoor classroom.  We used our senses of sight, smell, touch and sound to make and record observations.  We will continue to observe how the trees and landscape change throughout the seasons.

Life Cycles

This week we began our exploration of Life Cycles.  This Science unit covers many forms of life, and will extend throughout the year.  We began this week by talking about human life, and how humans grow and change over time.  Children partnered up, traced one another's feet and hands, and then measured their own hand and foot lengths.  We will save these, measure again in the spring, and discover how much we have grown.  We will also be making predictions about how much we each think we will grow over the course of the year.

Urban, Suburban, and Rural Communities

In Social Studies, we have been learning all about the differences between urban, suburban, and rural communities.  In the following activity, children placed their "self portraits" inside the inner circle, which represented the "urban" center of the city.  As the children began adding their sticky notes, they quickly realized how quickly the city was becoming crowded.  We discussed how and why suburban communities (represented by the second circle) form,  outside the urban community.  Rural communities were represented by the outermost circle. We have been discussing the advantages and disadvantages that come along with living in the different types of communities.

Doubles Facts & Combinations of Ten

This week in math we have been looking at patterns in both doubles facts and combinations of ten.  On the following sheet, students needed to shade the doubles facts in green, and circle any facts that doubles could help you solve in green.  Next, they needed to shade the combinations of 10 in blue, and circle any facts that combinations of 10 could help you solve in blue.  It was quite a bit to keep track of! 

Here are some examples:

If you know that 4 + 4 = 8,  then 4 + 5 (one more than 4) = 9 (one more than 8)

If you know that 3+7 = 10, then you know that 3 + 8 (one more than 7) = 11 (one more than 10)

We talk about the idea that the more of these "doubles" and "tens" facts you know, the more "Fact Power" you have, which makes solving other problems that much easier!  Much like phonics and reading, the more basic words you know, the easier it will be to decode other, more complex words.

Penpal Letters!

Today we received our first pen pal letters from Mrs. Kind's second grade class at Burns Park Elementary.  The children were so very excited to read their letters, share with one another, and set right to writing their response letters.  Writing letters is a valuable and authentic writing experience because students are writing for a true audience. Their motivation is palpable!

Our Community: Exploring Ann Arbor

In Social Studies we have been learning all about communities. Yesterday we had a wonderful field trip to the University of Michigan Museum of Art,  a true gem in our community.  The docents highlighted several pieces of artwork that depicted different types of communities or aspects of communities.  There were interactive lessons or artifacts tied with almost each of the pieces of artwork, for the students to engage with.  Thank you to all the parents who joined us as chaperones on this trip!