News for October 6

News for October 6

A four-day week had the students busy doing everything from saving a tree to being thankful for the good things in their lives.

On Monday, the students went outside with Mrs. Farrelly and Ms. Robertson to put copies of the letter that our class wrote about the tree. Recall that Mrs. Farrelly asked our class to research the tree and create a sign to stop students from climbing the tree for safety reasons. 

In math, the students reviewed how to use base ten math manipulatives to help them show their understanding of multi-digit numbers. It is very important for their future number sense, that each child knows that, for example, the "2" in the number 327 means "20 or 2 groups of 10". The children also had a tricky math challenge problem this week because they were given a problem with six correct answers! The students rose to the challenge and many figured out more than one answer.

In science, the children worked very hard to finish their animal research posters in time for curriculum night. They completed the research sheets on the animal they chose. They learned about how to make effective posters to communicate what they learned. The poster needs a clear title, an illustration and facts printed correctly and clearly. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

In writing, the students answered comprehension questions about the story, Stone Soup. They also worked on finishing the good copies of their fiction stories about Frisko the Squirrel. These are now in our classroom library for children to read during our independent reading time. 

On Wednesday we had our Thanksgiving feast! After reading the book, Stone Soup, the students applied the lesson of the story by each bringing a small vegetable to class and we used these vegetables to make delicious soup! The children washed and cut up the vegetables, added some water and salt and heated it to 100 degrees Celsius to boil and cook. Finally we added some instant rice. The class also had whole wheat bread with homemade butter! The students took turns shaking a jar containing 35% whipping cream with a bit of salt. After a lot of shaking, the butterfat separates from the whey (like buttermilk), and there is a lump of butter in the jar! We had a great time as the students practiced their table manners by asking fellow students to "pass the butter" and saying "please" and "thank you".

The students wrote thank you cards to their families and made small posters communicating what they are thankful for in their lives. These posters are now on display in the hall outside of the classroom.

In our class students are encouraged to write the date on everything so they have a record of when they did their work. Monday, October 10, 2016 can also be written Oct. 10/16 or 10X16. The last way uses Roman Numerals to indicate the month. October is the tenth month of the year and the Roman Numeral for 10 is X. The class learned the history of Roman Numerals and how to write the numbers from 1 - 12. Over 400 years ago, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered the Hindu-Arabic number system (0 - 9) and how place value can make any number in the world. Fibonacci also introduced zero (0) to the Western world.

The children started their pillow projects this week by learning how to tie dye fabric. Each student twisted and tied white fabric and dipped it in blue dye. This technique makes beautiful blue and white patterns.

Books read aloud this week:

A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth

Where in the World is Bob? By James Bowen

Eye to Eye - How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins

Fun With Roman Numberals by David Adler