March 5, 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
Wednesday, March 9: Jump Rope for Heart
Wednesday, March 16 Delayed Start
Friday, March 18 Fun Fair

It was a busy week back at school! First we had a delay and on Friday we got to see the 4th and 5th
grades put on the play Mary Poppins. Our class did a wonderful job getting back into our routine and even adding in a few new daily routines.We even squeezed in a trip to the library since we missed it the week before vacation due to a snow day and we didn't have it scheduled for this week because there was no school on Tuesday. Thanks Ms. Abbene for finding a time for us to go and get some books!

Literacy:
We are taking a deeper look at characters in fiction books. We read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. As we read, we talk to our reading buddies about what the characters are doing and why they are doing it.

Math:
The mathematicians amazed me with their mathematical thinking and use of mathematical language! We are working on fact families and understanding story problems. The students are working on developing a conjecture or big idea of what a fact family is. We have used dominoes and a fun class sorting activity where students had to find all the members of their fact family.

Here is are the members for the fact family group 1, 9, 10. After the whole group activity, the students had to go back to their seats to complete some independent work. 

The other big concept, story problems, involves understanding the difference between an addition, subtraction, or combination problem. The students must first identify what type of problem it is before solving it.

Science:

We have started a mini unit on how to keep our bodies healthy. First, we brainstormed what we already knew about staying healthy. The class came up with great ideas including stay hydrated, practice mindfulness, exercise, and eat healthy. This week we started looking at the food groups and talking about ways to stay active.

 We tried out a new activity to stay active this week. I taught the children how to use Chinese jump ropes. They did a great job!