Update for Week of February 23rd

Happy Birthday to Mr. R!  We hope you had a wonderful day!

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This was our last week of skating.  Thank you to Mr. Henderson for planning such a fun week of  skating activities for the students.  I would also like to extend a great big thanks to all of the parents who came out to help tie skates and to Mr. and Mrs. Galloway for going on the ice with the kids!

Curriculum Update

Language Arts

We had a very busy week of writing.  The class completed two traveling books during Writer's Workshop.  The first book was entitled "Wild Things."  The students hope you enjoy their use of sensory imagery to elaborate on their main characters or "wild things!"  

The students also put together a class book about "Varied Sentence Starters."  The purpose of this activity was to practice writing varied sentence starters while staying focused on a topic. The students chose a picture to use as the inspiration for their paragraph. The sentences in each paragraph answer the questions: what, when, how-ly, where and who or how-ing. In writing their paragraphs, they were asked not to use the same sentence starter twice.  Please don't forget to include your compliments at the back of the books.  The students love reading your comments.

Math

This week we finished our multi-digit addition (with and without regrouping) using the stacking method.  We also focused on the mental math strategy of  "subtracting 9" by playing the game "Rockets and Stars." 

 

Science

The students participated in two Survivor Building Challenges this week:

Challenge 1:  We have landed safely near shore and made our way to the closest beach. Ahead of us is a dense jungle and we see a huge storm heading our way, so we decide to seek shelter. As we reach the edge of the forest, we notice a large crack in the Earth. Ethan takes a step forward to take a closer look. It is very deep and looks like it may have been caused by an earthquake. He tells us that he can not even see the bottom. There is also hot lava spewing from the crack. The crack is not too wide, but we definitely can not jump over it. We will need to build something in order to cross onto the other side. We have decided to make a foot bridge out of bamboo we see nearby. We need to figure out if bending the bamboo to make a square frame or bending it into an arch will be stronger. We should remember that this structure needs to hold each classmate and teacher one by one as we step over the crack.

The students discovered that arch shaped designs support more mass than square shapes do. 

Challenge 2:  We made it safely across the crack in the earth, narrowly escaping the spewing lava.  As we continue to explore the island, we hear the roaring sound of a river nearby.  Approaching the river, we realize that it is too fast and deep to cross.    But we really don't want to turn around and go back to the beach.  We can see banana trees across the river with ripe, delicious bananas hanging from them.  Our stomachs growl at the sight of the fruit.  We decide that we need to cross the river to reach the bananas.  In order to cross the river we will have to build another bridge.  Nearby we see some tree bark that we can use as beams to support our bridge.  Our job is to test a variety of beam designs to see which one will work best for our foot bridge.

Through this challenge the students learned that not all beam designs support the same mass.

Social Studies

This week we learned more about the Culture of Tunisia including their "Traditions and Celebrations."

Congratulations to Mr. H for being chosen as our Student of the Week!