La Lectura
This we read a great story about two neighbor girls who build “competing” tree houses. They learned the lesson that they would enjoy their lonely treehouses more if they shared them with each other. This story provided a great opportunity for us to work on our comparing and contrasting skills. Our weekly objectives were:
- to test on spelling words with Z.
- to compare and contrast details from a story.
- to identify cause and effect.
- to use context clues to help us identify unknown words.
- to read aloud with a partner *and use context clues to help with comprehension.
The Week 3 Reading award was well received! (And coveted, even during Prodigy practice.)
Las matemáticas
This week was all about multiplication facts (through our 3-minute tests), mental calculation and rounding!
I have challenged your children to complete the rounding section of Prodigy before Monday. We have completed several fun and meaningful tasks to help them better understand numbers on a number line and how to use them for rounding. Can’t wait to see how everyone stacks up on Monday! Class tickets are on the line for this challenge!
Students have finalized their question and moved into the actual research. They can bring in books or take notes from books/videos/interviews at home. To be clear, they do not need to complete any of this project at home but they are welcome to continue their research if they want.
Research has begun! We’ve added a few more times to our Genius Hour lap books.
Science
This we our objectives were to:
- Identify the Andromeda Galaxy as the closest spiral galaxy in our universe.
- Describe gravity
- Describe the effects gravity has on Earth, within the solar system, and in the universe.
- Describe the characteristics of stars
- Compare and contrast our sun and other stars
- Describe a galaxy as a very large cluster of many stars
- Explain what constellations are and how they are useful
- Recognize and name important constellations in the hemisphere in which you live
History & Geography
A huge thank you to Mr. Brian for coming in to our classroom on Friday and sharing his experience as a tugboat captain and ship pilot on the Columbia! This was such an interesting and informative presentation relating to using rivers for transportation.
This week our goals were to:
- List three dangers that boat captains must look out for on rivers
- Describe the dangers on the Mississippi River and the Ob River
- Describe the locations of the Mississippi River and the Ob River
- Understand the meaning of the following domain-specific vocabulary.
Music with Ms. Nadia
Music is a great way to get the wiggles out and learn something new! This month we learned about rhythm through tapping sticks, hitting drums, striking triangles, clicking claves, shaking maracas, sliding sandpaper blocks, and jingling jingle bells. We were introduced to quarter and eighth notes and quarter rests, which we played in patterns on the percussion instruments. We also read a book called Max Found Two Sticks about a boy who saw music in the world around him. The kids followed along by repeating the rhythms in the story.
Some of my favorite moments of class are when students’ suggestions become a reality. The past week we went on a repeat-after-me Bear Hunt song adventure in which we ended up chopping down a tree to cross a river, riding an old abandoned railway car over a canyon, and running through a fossil museum. It was quite the experience! This class abounds with creativity and gusto which makes it fun to sing with them each week!
Art with Ms. Kelly
I’m enjoying working with this fun and creative class!
The first week we reviewed our Art Class procedures and rules, and then each student made an Abstract Name Design using markers and crayons. We looked at the artwork of the American artist Stuart Davis who used lots of letters and numbers in his abstract paintings during the 1940’s and 1950’s. 
The students learned about Roman Mosaics for our next project. We looked at examples of ancient Roman mosaics made from tiles, rocks, and glass. Ms. Laura, who helps out each Wednesday in Art, brought in a beautiful hand-made mosaic clock for the students to see. The students then used a variety of papers to cut out their own “tiles” to make a mosaic fish. Their wonderful “Modern Mosaics” are on the bulletin board at school.
We welcomed the season of Fall by learning how to draw and paint a “birds-eye view” of a plate of apples. The students learned about Still Life, and the artist Paul Cezanne. Their gorgeous apple paintings will be finished next week!