La lectura

The students are really starting to see how verbs work in Spanish!  I am seeing the lightbulbs go off as understanding flashes!  This week our objectives were:

• Conjugate verbs into the 3rd person singular, present tense.
• Write sentences in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person.
• Identify the subject and predicate of sentences.
• Read to self (whisper phones).
• Identify the main idea of a story.
• Identify supporting details in a story.

Las matemáticas

Our Unit 7 is all about multiplication. Big Idea: Mental math can be used to multiply. Numbers up to 3 digits can be multiplied with or without regrouping.

• Multiply ones, tens, and hundreds mentally.
• Students use skip-counting by 2 through 10 to multiply ones, tens and hundreds mentally.
• Students use base-ten blocks and place-value charts to multiply ones, tens, and hundreds with or without regrouping.
• Understand the Commutative Property of Multiplication
• Students multiply by ones, tens, and hundreds mentally
• Multiply 2- and 3-digit numbers by a 1-digit number with or without regrouping

 

This week we continued with Step 3: Make a preliminary plan by listing steps they plan to take to complete their investigation. We also created a google document for our Genius Hour projects.  This way each student can take notes at school and have access to those notes at home.   Some computer skills we worked on with our projects this week:

• Creat a document.
• Name a document.
• Copy and paste.
• Copy a URL (for citing purposes) and create a link in the google doc.
• Two fingered (right-click) click to open up new menus.

Next week we will work on adding accents!

 

 

All students successfully logged into their Google accounts and are excited about their new email!  Here are the guidelines we discussed in class:

• Students will not email each other during class (because face-to-face communication is always preferred)
• Students can email other students from the class but may not discuss other students.
• They should only say things in emails that they would say face-to-face and if their teachers were right there listening in.
• Kindness in our spoken and written words is always what we strive for.
• They may only email or go onto Google Docs with parent permission.

 

 

Science

This week we learned about mammals!  Our learning goals were to learn about the basic characteristics of and classify particular animals as mammals.  See if your student can describe these characteristics to you.

Next week we will have a special visitor, the Reptile Man, who will be introducing us to his reptile collection.  I have talked with the kids that this is a very safe activity and the students will be able to participate as much or as little as they feel comfortable.

 

History & Geography

We continue to research and work on our reports.  I am happy with the kids´ progress.  At this point we are on target and do not need to assign additional work at home.  The only assignment at this point for home is the project.  As we get closer to the oral report days, I will ask that students read over their report (on their Google account) to ready and practiced for their presentation.  We will be getting our Google accounts up and running and will be entering in our rough and then final draft.

 

Remember our two at-home projects? Repeat from last week’s news:

100th Day

This year the 100th day falls on Thursday, February 13th.  We would like to ask the kiddos to create their very own 100th day project to bring in for this day.  In keeping with the Genius Hour philosophy, the students can pick any way to share 100.  Guidelines:

• Must equal 100. (That’s it!)
• Be prepared to tell the class about your project (in Spanish too!)  What did you choose? Why did you choose it?

Some ideas:

• 100 ways to make 100 (math!) poster.
• Poster listing 100 kind words.
• Dress up as if you are 100 years old.
• Dress up as if you lived 100 years ago.
• Poster of all things from 100 years ago.
• Snack of 100 items to share with the class (trail mix, etc.)
• Poster or bag containing 100 items.
• Endless possibilities!

 

Valentine’s Day

As we do not have school on February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, February 18th.

• Students will exchange Valentine’s on 2/18 and should be sure to make one for each classmate.
• Students can make a box or envelope at home to bring in to collect class Valentine Cards.
• Students may bring in special treats to share in either the AM or PM.