What an unexpected way to begin our week…a snow day. Students had no difficulty in bouncing back and getting right back into the swing of things. We had another great week at Half Day! Students focused on folktales this week. We read a story called Nail Soup. After reading, some of the students said that this story reminded them of Stone Soup! Please ask your child to recount (retell) the story to you going over the plot (beginning, middle, and end). In class we also practiced asking and answering questions as we read. The students and I discussed how important stopping to ask and answer questions as we read is to help us to check for understanding. Experienced readers do this without thinking, but as a student transitions from learning to read and reading to learn, it’s important to practice these skills and to not just gloss over things that might be challenging to them. This is a great strategy that can be easily transferred to their nightly reading. We also discussed what root words were and practiced identifying what the root words are to various words that we encountered in our reading, such as admiration, inspiration, etc…
In math this week, we reviewed multiplication/division and worked on a couple of fun math activities to practice/review past skills. Students worked on Super Bowl math. They were given past scores of Super Bowls and had to figure out how those scores might have come. Students were also given a $200 budget to plan a carnival. They were given a list of booths, prizes, and treats that they could purchase. It was interesting to see how thoughtful some groups were in their planning. Some shared they wanted to make sure that the prizes were balanced for both boys and girls. Others shared that staying within budget was challenging, while others shared strategies they used to come to a consensus when they each wanted to use different prizes or booths. It was fun to see their final presentations and carnival and to hear about their team work!
Most of the students are done with their “postcard” writing. Students had so much to say based off of their research that we turned it into community letters instead of postcards
Smarty Pants production (a husband and wife team) came to visit Half Day on Tuesday. Our pictures from this assembly have been posted on our website. Students were fully engaged as the presenters used balloons of various sizes to create simple machines. This was a great way to kick off our unit on simple machines. In class this week, students talked about how machines help our work to be easier. We also talked about how simple machines have 0-1 moving part. Students explored and performed various experiments using our first simple machine, the levers. We talked about levers and labeled the parts of a lever: an arm, fulcrum, load, and effort. Students then used the push/pull meter to measure how much force it takes to move a load of washers when the fulcrum is located in the middle, closer to the load, and closer to the effort. Then we talked about the tradeoff for moving the fulcrum closer to the load. We also talked about how friction plays a role in how easy or hard it is to move something. Students were introduced to another simple machine, the wheel. We measured how much force it took to move a brick across carpet and our desk. Then we used dowels and measured how much force it took to move the brick. Ask your child which way required the most force and which way was the least force applied!
Next Friday we will be going to watch the play Frindle. We will leave school right away in the morning and we will be back at Half Day in time for lunch.
Thank you for all the cereal boxes that came in. We look forward to turning them into something special for Valentine’s Day!
In math this week, we reviewed multiplication/division and worked on a couple of fun math activities to practice/review past skills. Students worked on Super Bowl math. They were given past scores of Super Bowls and had to figure out how those scores might have come. Students were also given a $200 budget to plan a carnival. They were given a list of booths, prizes, and treats that they could purchase. It was interesting to see how thoughtful some groups were in their planning. Some shared they wanted to make sure that the prizes were balanced for both boys and girls. Others shared that staying within budget was challenging, while others shared strategies they used to come to a consensus when they each wanted to use different prizes or booths. It was fun to see their final presentations and carnival and to hear about their team work!
Most of the students are done with their “postcard” writing. Students had so much to say based off of their research that we turned it into community letters instead of postcards
Smarty Pants production (a husband and wife team) came to visit Half Day on Tuesday. Our pictures from this assembly have been posted on our website. Students were fully engaged as the presenters used balloons of various sizes to create simple machines. This was a great way to kick off our unit on simple machines. In class this week, students talked about how machines help our work to be easier. We also talked about how simple machines have 0-1 moving part. Students explored and performed various experiments using our first simple machine, the levers. We talked about levers and labeled the parts of a lever: an arm, fulcrum, load, and effort. Students then used the push/pull meter to measure how much force it takes to move a load of washers when the fulcrum is located in the middle, closer to the load, and closer to the effort. Then we talked about the tradeoff for moving the fulcrum closer to the load. We also talked about how friction plays a role in how easy or hard it is to move something. Students were introduced to another simple machine, the wheel. We measured how much force it took to move a brick across carpet and our desk. Then we used dowels and measured how much force it took to move the brick. Ask your child which way required the most force and which way was the least force applied!
Next Friday we will be going to watch the play Frindle. We will leave school right away in the morning and we will be back at Half Day in time for lunch.
Thank you for all the cereal boxes that came in. We look forward to turning them into something special for Valentine’s Day!