All About Leaves!

 

 

Science

Today we went on a leaf hunt. The students enjoyed trying to find simple and compound leaves on the playground. They also looked for broad and needle leaves as well. We will use these leaves to identify the types of trees they came from. The students will use an identification key to do this. We can't wait to share our work.

Math

In math, we have been very busy practicing measurement. The students have worked collectively to measure to the nearest quarter inch, centimeter, and millimeter. They have measured many things including: paper, lines, how far they could slide a card, and finally the penny roll. As a way to share our data, we have been learning how to make a line plot graph. The students are learning that graphs need to have a title, a label for both sides of information and of course their data. The students created one in class and tonight's homework was a review graph. I will post pictures of the completed graphs later!

This Week In Reading

We will begin our study of fictional stories this week. We will discuss the story elements that students will find when they read fiction. These include: characters, setting, problem, solution and the events of a story. The students will have a comprehension check-up on Thursday.

Reading, Writing and Words, OH MY!

We have been working hard to identify the genres that we are reading this year. The students drew symbols to help them remember what each genre means. The quiz will be on Thursday.  

Students have also learned that we have two voices when we read... our reading voice and our thinking voice. The students record their thinking each day as they read their independent reading book. They have learned that good readers make connections, make predictions, ask questions and visualize as they are reading. This helps them to understand and remember what they are reading.

Right now we are reading Anne of Green Gables as our read aloud. We are looking at Anne and her character. We have decided that Anne likes to talk a lot! Sometimes she includes details in her speaking that don't go along with her topic. In writing, we are working on many things that good writers do including: using capitals when necessary, using punctuation when necessary, writing in complete sentences, indenting new paragraphs, writing a topic sentence in our paragraphs, and making sure we stay on topic and don't add unnecessary details. Remember, don't be like Anne! :))

We Made Plant Cells!

 

 
We are studying plant and animal cells in science. To learn about the parts of the plant cell, we created edible cells. The students really enjoyed using food to identify the cell parts and functions and if they could correctly identify them, they got to eat them! It was a success!

It's a New Year!

I am so sorry I have been so busy this year. I haven't had the time to update the blog and now it's almost a month into school. I will be posting pictures and catching up this weekend so please stop back. Until then, I still have lots of websites to check out and pictures from years past. Enjoy!

  

 The students have been exploring rocks and minerals. They are learning how scientists use properties of rocks to help them identify and sort rocks into specific groups.