The highlight of the week for 1-Bu was going to visit five different countries on International Day. The students had a great time visiting Japan, Italy, Korea, Egypt, and Taiwan. They got to play a game or do a craft while visiting each country. Hopefully you got a chance to look at the masks and bookmarks they made. Check the end of this post for pictures from that day.
Please keep in mind that the Valentine Projects are due on Wednesday. We'll put the final projects together at the end of the week in school. Your child will love it and all of his/her hard work will have paid off.
Here's what else we've been working on in the classroom:
Reading : We continued learning about text-to-self connections last week. When we first started learning about connections, I was happy with the students coming up with any old connection with a text they had read. Now, however, we're working on digging deeper.
Last week, we spoke about making sure our connections are meaningful. Meaningful connections are ones that will help us understand the text at a deeper level. For example, if I'm reading a book about a character named Shelley and I make a connection saying "this reminds me of my friend named Shelley," it doesn't necessarily help me understand the book any better. Just knowing someone with a similar name to a character in a book is a coincidence. It would be a meaningful connection, however, if I was reading a book about someone whose friend baked her cookies when she was feeling down and I make a connection saying "this reminds me of when my friend made me cinnamon rolls when I was feeling down." This connection would help me understand the book at a deeper level because I would be able to relate to how the character felt when her friend cheered her up by baking her something.
Writing : Unfortunately, writing has really taken a hit with all of the crazy schedules we've had recently. I'm hoping for the students to finally publish their how to books this week.
Math : Last week, the students worked on creating number scrolls (which are number grids continuing past 100). In order to do this, the students took a careful look at the number patterns on number grids. Recognizing and continuing these patterns will enable the students to continue developing their knowledge about place value.
We also worked on measuring crooked paths last week. The students had a lot of fun with this lesson. We measured different segments of a crooked path at a time and added the segments together to get the total length of the path.
Science : We continued learning about space last week by learning a little bit about each planet (and Pluto!) in our solar system.
Social Studies : We spent some time last week learning a little bit more about North America. The students now, hopefully, understand how it's possible for us to live in North America AND the United States of America (which was a big area of confusion a couple of weeks ago).
Computers : The students spent some more time working in Google Drawings last week. They're getting quite good! Have you child log into his/her google account so he/she can show you what he/she has been working on. Email me if your child forgets how to do this.
Have a great week!