Math
We have been SO busy in math and have done so much since our last update. We have focused on both time and money. We had fun playing with clocks and especially playing with all the coins! We will continue to work with both of these concepts in our morning circle as it takes practice, practice, practice.
Subtraction is the new name of the game! We are diving right in, playing games like Number Line, 2 Less, Race to a Zero, Four or Five in a Row, and The Difference Game.
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| Number Line - One partner rolls both dice and adds the numbers together. The other partner does the same. Partner one takes the smaller number away from the bigger number. A gem is taken from that number off the number line on her side. Switch. |
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| 2 Less - Roll the die. What is 2 less than that number? Remove a gem. |
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| Race to Zero - Start with 100. The roll of the die tells you how much you can take away. Not enough ones? Let's regroup and take a ten, turn it into ten bits and ta-da! - We are on our way to borrowing! |
Our multiplication group has been working so hard. We are now focusing on multiplying by 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 as we prepare ourselves for double digit multiplication (like 45 x 6). Yahoo!
Literacy
I love watching the flow of writing topics change throughout the year. There will be times were half the class is so excited about same topic (yes, I am referring to the Angry Bird phase!) and then times where every child is writing about something different. We currently have stories about bank robbers, pixies, pets on a trip to Paris, Garfield, fairies, neighbors, Angry Bird superheros, cute aliens, dog friends... Some are putting dialogue in their story for the first time and learning to use quotation marks, others are noticing that they remembered capitals and periods the first time through and others are extending their stories more and more, choosing paper with more lines and thinking about how to carefully word their sentences. We LOVE writing!
We also LOVE reading! I brought in a big basket of new books which has been very exciting and are being devoured. We have been using mental images and predictions to help us with our comprehension in our own reading. We have really enjoyed sharing our predictions out loud during our read alouds and connecting our predictions to the text or what we know about the topic. We finished Sticks and Stones and Doggy Bones which was a BIG favorite. It was about dogs at a dog school who are dealing with a dog that isn't being nice and making fun of other dogs. It provided great discussions and practice in making guesses as to why he might be treating other dogs that way. We found giving lots of kindness and having caring friends was just what he needed. We are now reading Maybelle in the Soup which is about a cockroach, her dream to taste food before it touches the floor and the adventure it takes her on. Lots of giggles in this one!
We all continue with our own word patterns...final consonant blends, crazy r, open/closed sounds to know when to use a pattern (like "ou" or "ow"), magic e, -ck and -ll with baby vowels.
Theme
As you know, we said farewell to the Middle Ages with a traditional feast. I think it was pretty much agreed that the food of the Middle Ages is not the most appealing to our children's tastes - although the handmade pretzels were a hit!!
Back in the time machine we went and surprising found ourselves in the 1960s!! Say what?! That crazy time machine! We are spending a few weeks learning about two amazing individuals that were doing something incredible during this time. One is an artist, Faith Ringgold, who was creating her own art style combining paint, sewing and writing to make story quilts. We have learned a bit about her life, what influenced her art and how she worked to get art galleries to show work from ALL people. We have so loved trying on her art style and creating our own story quilt using her book Tar Beach as a jumping off point to share where we might fly to. Check out our classroom wall to see these incredible pieces of work.
We are also learning about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and his work that helped change the world. After we finish our timeline of his life, we will focus more on his work and important words like, tolerance, equality, leader, friendship, love, peace, respect and dream.
Art
Please check out our adorable snowpeople on our wall. We played with perspective and drawing our snowperson from many different perspectives...far away, up close of the head or belly, side view...all ways = super cute!
Field Trips
Wow! The food bank LOVED all our help earlier this month! The children loved preparing bags for the For Kids program and filled hundreds of bags for kids who need extra food at home.
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| Filling up the bags!! |
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