March 23 TWAS

Although this was a short week for the students, they packed in a lot of learning.

In LA, group A continued to work on story writing.  Most of the rough drafts are complete and final copies are being composed in Google Docs.  During Daily 5 work on writing the students are continuing to investigate and share what they learn in wonderful Google slide creations.

Group B focused on continuing their work on their 3 character story (dragon included) by planning out the different aspects of a story first, using a storyboard template to plan the basic outline.  Using this, they then wrote a rough draft of their story in their story writing books.  Some of the students then moved on to begin typing their story in Google Docs.

In music, the students are exploring different aspects of the musical, “Peter and the Wolf”.  Ask you child what the story is all about and what instruments are connected to each character in the story.  They also had a blast during gym, strengthening their soccer skills by playing ring soccer in pairs, then in groups of 4.  During afternoon recess outdoors they learned a “Circle of Courage” game similar to “Capture the Flag” with rings and cones.  Ask your child how this game is connected to the “Circle of Courage”.

The focus in math this week for Group A was mental math strategies.  We are continuing to work with our anchor numbers (5’s and 10’s) and using other strategies such as doubles and doubles plus one to work through equations.  In math stations we challenged each other in addition games, completed math art projects, worked through math problems and played with 2D and 3D shapes in Mathletics.

Group B began learning about time this week.  They made their own paper plate clock with movable hands to play games and practice their new skills.  They loved playing a racing game (girls against the boys) to be the first to display a specific time on their clock that I called out and wrote on the board.  We will continue with this after the spring break, learning about am/pm, the 24-hour clock and other time concepts.  The students in B also learned a new addition game with dice called, “Barn or House”.

The students began a new unit in science, “Hot and Cold”.  They began by learning a bit about the topic and doing a choral read of the learner outcomes.  Then they sorted pictures of hot and cold things into one of three categories, which included a “can be both hot and cold” column.  They also added their own ideas to their lists.  The also began to write about what they think they already know about hot and cold and what they would like to know, on a KWL chart.  At the end of the unit the students will write about what they learned.  After the March break, the students will continue investigating hot and cold further. 

In social studies the students continued working on their Inuit PowerPoint presentations in order to prepare them for the student-led conferences.

Have a wonderful spring break!

Mrs. McArthur & Ms. Klein