Week 4 =)

Sept 26 Blog

Hello Families! 

OUTDOOR SCHOOL PARENT MEETING - Wednesday October 9th 6:00 - 7:00 PM in the Gym

       

Here are the highlights of what our curricular focuses were this week.

Science

Students continued on their journey of exploring why wetlands are so important. Students collaborated in their groups and came up with questions they were still wondering about the wetlands after all the research we have done so far. Students then engaged in self-guided research and took jot notes to answer their wonders. These wonders will be included in their multi-media presentation at the end of this unit!

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we looked at the elements of a story. We used a graphic organizer to brainstorm ideas for a story we would like to write. We spent each day this week focusing on a specific aspect of writing our story.

v Monday – Students developed their plan.

v Tuesday – Students wrote the introduction to their story which included the characters and setting.

v Wednesday – Students introduced their problem and began writing about the three main events to solve their problem.

v Thursday – Students and teachers reviewed what it means to self-edit our work. We looked at the importance of capitals, punctuation, spelling, and checking if our work makes sense.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we are starting to show our learning for our mapping unit by making our own Me Maps. Students will need to include 10 landforms, and the viewer should be able to tell at least 8 things about each student when they view their map. Students also need to include a legend and compass rose.

Math

In Math this week, we began expanding our mathematical vocabulary! We engaged in number talks which allow us to answer basic computational questions BUT we have to explain our thinking process for answering the question.

We also engaged in a hands-on, open ended task in which students needed to figure out the parameters of a pyramid. This is the problem students were presented with:

A pyramid is being built. The first level has one cube, the second level has 4 cubes and the third level has 9 cubes.

a)       How many cubes will be in the 4^th level?

b)        How many cubes will be in the 5^th level?

c)        How many cubes will there be in total if the pyramid is 7 levels?

d)        How many levels will you need to build a CUBE?

Many students got the same answers, but all arrived using different strategies and mathematical thinking!

We also played multiplication games to get our brains thinking and using mental math to increase our speed of recall of multiplication facts.

Drama/Art/Music

This week in Fine Arts, we focused on Readers Theatre in Drama! Students were reading scripts about fractured fairytale and comedic bedtime routines. Next week we will be incorporating voices and students will get a chance to showcase their scripts!

Ask Me About:

-  What am I writing about in my story? What is my problem and 3 main events to solve that problem?

-  What strategy did I use to solve the pyramid problem this week?

Practice:

-  Basic Multiplication Facts!