May 23, 2014

Classroom News:

Wednesday is our field trip! Woo hoo!


It was fun to see Skylar, Alexis, and Theo at the Empty Bowls Dinner on Thursday night!

 Literacy/Social Studies Focus:

We read a great book, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. This book was  published in 1939 and is still a great book in 2014. We also read I Stink by Kate McMullen.

Then, we started to focus on books that we will be using during our field trip next week in the dancing and acting workshops. The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens  and Susan Stevens Crummel is one of my favorite books to read aloud. Please check out this book if you haven't read it. It's filled with fun dialogue and alliteration.

Another book we will be using on the field trip is Mortimer by Robert Munsch. This book is also a great one to read aloud. We found more examples of author's craft in this book too:  onomatopoeia and repeated text.

Math  Focus:

The mathematicians are now applying the conjectures they have developed in the geometry unity. They had to fill two of the same shape but one way had to have fewer blocks and one had to have more blocks. The students had to plan out how they would use the different blocks to achieve this goal. 

Social Thinking/Wellness:
The class did something really special this week. As a school district, we are trying to make connections across the building and using this connection to share different wellness activities. 

Our class went over to the middle school and joined Mrs. Sherrer and her students during their SIM time (Spartans in Motion). We had a blast out on the soccer field participating in activities such as hula hoops, jump roping, crane, and many others. The middle school students were partnered up with our students and showed them how to do the activities. 

On Friday, we invited the middle school kids over to join us for mindfulness. The students explained how mindfulness practice helps us to focus and relax. This helps us throughout our day. Hope helped to lead the large group through a mindfulness activity and then we shared a mindful message.