It is hard to believe that Friday is here again. It seems as though our week just began. It has been full of conversations about manners, consideration and self-control, fractions, sentences and paragraphs, research and growing.

S.E.L. – Becoming More Self-Aware

We began our week thinking about compliments and appreciation for others. We are thinking more about what it means to be a friend. Friends care about others. Friends have manners. Everyone agrees that there are different kinds of friends and that friends are nice to be around. That said, it dawned on me that perhaps no one had told the few children in our class who flail down the hall, arms swinging, feet jumping and mouth going that they were rude and annoying to the rest of our class and to every classroom they passed. We talked about this in general. Each student had to honestly assess his or her behavior and notice how some people in our class were never around that group in line. We talked about what it means to be polite and then looked at a list of synonyms and antonyms to help us realize how others might label our impolite behaviors. We’re not perfect of course, but some of our movement through the halls has become more controlled and courteous. Our next goal is to tackle side conversations during lessons and work time.

Sentences versus Paragraphs

Most everyone in the class knows that each sentence must have a subject and a predicate. They can identify when word collections are complete sentences and when they are not. Most of the class would say that a paragraph is a group of sentences on one topic. They are organized to make a point. The first sentence is important because it sets the topic and the last sentence helps a reader understand what the writer’s message was. We know about indents too.

It is much easier to talk about these ideas as a class than it is for children to use these ideas on their own. It is challenging for many of them grasp this concept either when asked to write on a given topic or a topic of their own choosing. Hopefully, at the conclusion of our research for both the animals and the state wonders children will feel sure of their abilities to use paragraphing as an organizing structure to craft interesting pieces.

Out to the Greenhouse

After 6 weeks our broccoli seedlings are ready to be transplanted into our foot square beds. We are choosing the seedling we think is most likely to survive, thrive and provide produce for the cafeteria to plant. We’ll be watching closely and measuring growth to see what changes happen to our plants when they are out in the open. We’ll also be able to compare how our crop is growing compared to the kale and endive being grown by the other two classrooms.

Becoming State Specialists

The children have been exploring their states – reading about them in books and online. They’ve explored people and places, landmarks and structures. They’re learning about history and trying to understand how time and progress impacts understanding and beliefs.

In art the children have been working to create a collage of the animal they’ve chosen as important to their state. They’ve made a representation of a famous person from their state and finally will be creating an architectural drawing of an important structure from their state. These pieces represent three of the “wonders” chosen for their state. Creating the State Float Blueprint will be part of next week’s homework. These three projects should be included on the float plans somewhere. The artwork will be completed and sent home as a collection just before April vacation. That way the children will have them as they work to build their floats for the May 28th Parade of the States.

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces –

• We continue to develop map reading skills with Mr. Caron. This week we used maps of the school to find pegs hidden by classmates. Some were easy, but others were challenging.
• We are enjoying The Secret of Zoom and the idea of moving things with our thought vibrations.
• We’ve been exploring fractions with geoboards and pattern blocks. We are making the connection between fractions and division.