Finally, the class had a five day week to work on a number of projects together.
In language, the students studied their first 10 word wall words. The words can be subject vocabulary words or irregular and high-frequency use words. However, many of the words come from the students' writing (that is, words that theyperonally have trouble spelling). The children are expected to study their words at home each day to prepare for the spelling test each Friday. After that, they are expected to spell the word walls words correctly for the rest of their lives!
The class has published its first group of fiction stories! Each child brought his/her story through the traditional writing process (plan, rough copy, edit, good copy). It's a lot of work. These stories are now on display on the bulletin board in the hall outside of our classroom.
In math, the class continued to learn about number patterns using the 100 chart, number lines and skip counting. The students practiced figuring out the pattern rules and how the tens digits and ones digits show patterns as well. The children also practiced their "mental math" skills (doing math in their heads) and explaining in words how his/her brain got the answer (not always easy to do).
In visual arts, the children focused on design element of colour. They used primary coloured playdoh (red, blue, yellow) and mixed these to create the secondary colours (orange, green, purple). They used these six colours to create a traditional colour wheel. The students also learned about tints (adding white) and shades (adding black).
The students learned how to use watercolour pencils and used these to create illustrations to go with their fiction stories. These are now on display in the hall with the published stories.
In science, the class began the process of how to learn more about our pet water snail Georgette. Research always begins with questions! The questions the children have will help to guide our research project. Using the traditional question words (who, what, when, where, why, how) each student wrote the questions they had on post-it notes and we put them together. Next week, we will find out the answers to these questions and write a class book on snails.
The students watched the film Dolphin Tale to accompany our read aloud non-fiction book, Winter's Tail, about a real-life dolphin who lost her tail and how her human friends helped her. The class discussed how the book and the movie were the same and how they were different. (Since the movie was only based on a true story, there were many things in the movie version that weren't true in real life.)
If you would like to visit the real Winter the dolphin (who lives in Florida) on the internet, here is the Clearwater Marine Aquarium website:
www.seewinter.com
Books read aloud this week:
Winter's Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again by Craig Hatkoff
Dolphin Tale (DVD) - a film based on the true story of Winter the dolphin
Life Size Zoo (and More Life Size Zoo) by Teruyuki Komiya
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
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