Week Ending 3/6/20

The first week of March is done and the weather is more and more Spring like!  It's so nice to be able to get outside and play on these nice days!

Important information:

• If you have not yet signed up for conferences, please sign up for a time that you and your child can attend.  Conference Sign Ups
• Our first field trip is on Monday, March 16th.  I will send more information next week but for now, be thinking about ensuring your child has a good breakfast, packs a paper bag lunch with throw away water bottle, and is ready to learn and experience our day!
• Thursday, March 19th is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 math activities we worked on were playing Guess My Number within a 1,000 (determining our partner's number by paying careful attention to their clues), Plus 10/Minus 10 (working on adding and subtracting efficiently within 1,000 by 10s and noticing the patterns on the hundreds chart), and Close to 100 (using our addition strategies to make the closest number to 100 that we can using 4 digits).  

You can play Close to 100 here at home.  It's a great way see what your child is working on in the classroom! Close to 100

2 read aloud books we read this week were Something About Hensley's, where we focused on what we learn about the characters through their  actions and Ivy and Bean, were we have been focusing on the important events in our story.  Next week, we'll be focusing on Ivy and Bean's friendship and how it's changed or stayed the same.  

Ask your child who they'd rather be friends with, Ivy or Bean?

1 important thing for you to know is that the students have been talking a lot about the Coronavirus.  We shift the conversation after letting them know with the flu, coughs, and colds, how important is to wash their hands and everyone is ok where we are.  

Week Ending 2/7/20

We've finished another week of February and we have one week left till February break!

Important information:

• The 100th day is next Tuesday!  Please be sure to have your child bring in their 100 items in the brown paper bag so we can't see them.  They also need to bring in their guessing sheet so they can share their clues with the class.  
• Friday is Valentine's Day and we'll be sharing valentines with each other.  If your child is bringing in valentines, please be sure they have one for every child in the class.  Also, food is not allowed to be passed out.  If any food is brought in, it will be sent home and not handed out. 
• If you have any cleaning wipes or tissues you'd like to donate, we'd love them!
• Conference sign up is here:  Spring Conference Sign Up

3, 2, 1 things we've done this week...

3 Grace Lin books we've read are The Ugly Vegetables, Dim Sum for Everyone, and Fortune Cookies Fortunes.  We have started learning about Grace Lin, her life, and why she writes children's books.  Here's a link to her website and you can browse at home: Grace Lin's Website .

2 math activities we worked on were collecting date on how many teeth students in Ms. Bowen's class have lost and then sharing what we noticed about the data.  We have been focusing on what they've noticed beyond, "One student lost 4 teeth.", and noticing information such as "2 more students lost 4 teeth than 3 teeth."  Thinking about what the data is showing us helps us become better critical thinkers.   Check out how we represented out teeth data below!

While at my math workshop last week, we learned how to easily send families math games to play!  

We played this math game last week about sorting by different attributes.  You can play this week if you want!

Yekktis Math Game

1 Stretch Your Mind math activity we worked on was Domino Window.  We talked a lot about perseverance!  These activities are a good exercise in how to think differently and out of the box.  They can be a struggle for those kids that are quick computation thinkers and they can be a quick activity for those that struggle with the computation.  Moving forward this year we'll be doing a lot more of these that will lend themselves to different mathematical strengths in the classroom.  

Here's a picture below! 

 

 

Week Ending 1/31

We're moving on to February!  Seems like January was a long month but we accomplished SO much!

Important information:

• Thursday, February 6, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  
• February vacation is the week of February 17th.  
• If you have any wipes, tissues, or paper towels you'd like to donate, please send them our way!

3, 2, 1 things we've worked on this past week...

3 math activities we worked on were creating bar graphs to show what we learned about our classmates, sort information about our favorite weekend activities to organize and represent the data clearly to others, and we investigated line plots.  This coming week, we'll collect data about how many teeth we've lost and decide with our group how we should show the data and what we've learned.  

2 read aloud we read were A Story, A Story and Anansi & the Talking Melon.  We finished up our trickster tale unit by reading trickster tales and identifying who the trickster was, the problem and solution of the stories, and more importantly, characteristics of the trickster.    

1 writing workshop piece we're working on is our writing about Mexico.  Students have chosen three topics to research and write the most important facts and ideas they've learned.  Right now we're still in the early stages, but I hope to have them ready for you by conferences!  

Week ending 1/17/20

What a chilly day! We had a busy day despite the cold.  We did all our core subjects of course, talked about Martin Luther King Jr day, moved our bodies with GoNoodle, and did Team Time today.

Important information:

• Monday, there is no school.
• Next Thursday is Peek Week in PE.  We have PE on Thursday at 1:10.

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 read aloud books we heard this week were How Turtles Got Their Shell and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (both pourquoi tales about why the world is how it is), and we finished up fables with The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  Next week, we'll finish up pourquoi tales and move into trickster tales.  

* Ask your child why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.

2 math activities we worked on this week were playing Guess My Number up to 500 and Plus or Minus 10/5 in a Row.  Guess My Number is a good challenge to play when they have to pay attention to not only guessing the correct number but also keep track of all the clues their partner is giving them with the < > signs.  Plus or Minus 10/ 5 in a Row helps students focus on adding or subtracting 10 efficiently and strategically placing their chips to get 5 in a row.  There's ALOT of organizational thinking and mathematical problem solving going on!  We'll be finishing up this unit on tens and hundreds and start exploring data next week.

1 Team Time activity we worked on was creating snowmen with just 3 marshmallows and 4 toothpicks.  The task was to create the highest marshmallow they could with only those materials.  It was so interesting to see their ideas come to life!  

Check out the pictures below to see our results!