Sorry I have been a little distant from the blog this past week. The end of the year can bring about a lot of planning, preparation, meetings, events, etc. Here is a rundown of what your child has been learning about this week.
Literacy - We have been reading the story,
Boxes for Katje by Denise Fleming. This story is based on true events and tells the story of a girl from Indiana (Rosie) who ships many boxes to a girl and her community in Holland (Katje) after World War II. Katje and her community are so thankful and the girls begin to exchange letters and begin a friendship. This past week we have been reading and rereading this story. We've explored a number of vocabulary words and completed activities that help us to better understand the story and these particular words (luxury, savor, generous, eager, sparingly). In writer's workshop, we are using this book as well and working up to writing a response to this text. In the meantime, we are looking closely at how writer's make complete sentences and use the 5 w's and the h to expand their sentences to make them "wow" sentences. We are also learning how to combine our sentences to make these sentences better. The students also spent some time free writing about various farm animals and life on a farm.
Spelling- Students learned about the -es suffix and practiced a variety of words that followed this pattern. They learned that if a word ends in -sh, -ch, -x, z, or s they must add -es to make it plural.
Math- We continued to work on our farms this week. Students have learned about pigs, sheep, chickens, horses, cows, and goats and how these animals are useful to a farm family. We've looked closely at what we get from these animals, what they eat, and interesting characteristics about each one. INQUIRE with your child which animals have more than 1 stomach and why. The children were able to choose which animals they wanted to purchase on their own farm and by using farm bucks, purchased land, coups, animals, and fences for their property.
Science- We have continued our study of plant survival this week. We began the week learning a new song - Six Plant Parts - sung by Banana Slug String Band to begin learning about the different parts that make up a plant. We explored various foods that we eat and learned about which part of the plants we eat. Students sorted a variety of foods according to which part of the plant it was. In learning about the roots and stem of a plant, we conducted 2 experiments. To see how strong a root actually is, we planted a sunflower in a goose egg shell to see if the roots were strong enough to break the shell. To see how water travels up through a stem, we placed celery stems in different colored water and are watching to see what happens. We will be making observations over the next week. We also began a new service learning project - planting a sunflower garden at Harrison Field. We remembered back to our Kindergarten year and visiting sunflower gardens and thought that the new Kindergarteners will now have the opportunity to do the same. The students are excited to give back, since many of them remember what it was like being a kindergartner and how much fun it was to collect and study the sunflower seeds!
Social Studies/C.A.R.E.S.- We spent the last two week learning about and reviewing the steps to take to prevent bullying. Students learned a school wide visual signal to use when telling their peer to "Stop." If the peer continued acting in the same undesirable way, the students practiced, "walking away." If by chance the peer still doesn't stop, the children practiced "talk" which entails bringing the problem to the teacher's attention. We reviewed the differences between tattling and telling and spent many hours acting out a variety of circumstances. The students also heard many stories that involved characters being involved in similar situations.
