Super Science Motion Mania and Fall Party Fun

What a great day we had today!  Our day started off with Super Science Friday as we explored all about motion!  Our missions brought up conversations about energy, speed, velocity, force and so much more!

Thank you so much to all of our families who helped to make this fall party such a success!  From the costumes to the party stations to the food...everyone had a blast!  Enjoy some pictures from a great day!

(If you were at school and took any pictures, please email them to me and I can share them out as well!)

Domino Math

We got out some dominoes this week to review the concept of turn-around facts. Dominoes are a great math tool to use for adding and subtracting practice!  

Trick Or Treat For UNICEF

Today we learned all about how UNICEF helps kids by providing clean water, medical treatment, food, shelter and educational materials. Our class set a goal to raise at least $46 this week to donate to UNICEF. As students collect money, they can bring it in or they can wait until Friday to return their box. We'll count the money at school and I'll turn in our class donations.  Thanks for encouraging our young citizens to help those less fortunate. 

Math, Science and Movement

We are continuing to work on our addition strategies and are becoming much more fluent with our facts.  Lots of practice with dice, number cards, flashcards and friends helps to make the hard work fun.

Our science unit about the forces of pushes and pulls kicked off with some playground observations.  Students practiced using different playground equipment and had to determine if they use a push or a pull when they are playing.  They determined that more playground equipment requires them to push.

Our class has been very lucky to have an extra special visitor coming into our room to teach us some unique lessons.  Mr. Stankowski has been working with us on different movement exercises and helping us to recognize different ways to use our voice.  We've learned about pitch and pace and practiced floating and flying!  It's always fun when he comes for a visit.

Doubles, Doubles, Doubles

We have spent a lot of time this week working on the addition strategy using doubles. The students have been playing games all week to increase their fact fluency when they are faced with a doubles problem. We played doubles bump and doubles tic-tac-toe as well as challenged a friend while working on our speed in answering doubles facts. We even identified the pattern that appears when you list the doubles facts...all of the answers are even and they skip count by 2!  

Writing, Writing and More Writing

Our writing the past two weeks has focused on two key aspects: personal narrative and free choice writing.  We learned that personal narratives are when we tell a story that happened to us. The story needs a beginning, middle and end and can be a small moment that we stretch out to share each and every detail. Students wrote narratives about a lucky day they've had and are beginning a new narrative about a time when they helped somebody. 

Our free choice writing has kicked off with a bang!  Students are experimenting with all types of writing including narratives, non-fiction writing and fairy tales!  Their favorite part is sharing their work with their classmates!  Each student is very proud of the work they are doing!  

Mystery Reader, Mystery Reader...Who Can It Be????

We enjoyed our first Mystery Reader on Thursday!  The students were listening carefully as the "Good Witch" entered the room to see if it was somebody they knew.  Zarin was surpised to discover that her Mimi drove down to be a reader in the class!  We listened with excitement as she read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  We are looking forward to more Mystery Readers as the year goes on.  It's not too late to send in your form if you would like to surprise our class as a reader!