Happy Weekend Everyone!
I can't believe we have already reached May. It's definitely a busy time of year with a lot of excitement ahead of us! The students have come back from vacation with excitement and determination. Every day is full of learning, fun, and laughs in our classroom. Here are some of our recent happenings!
Reading
We have been reading series books and meeting in book clubs to discuss our books. The students really rock at this unit. They are taking notes of their reading like crazy and they are excellent book club members. We have been comparing books within our own series and also comparing different series with other book clubs. The students have come so far in their ability to discuss text and share their ideas or predictions. We have spent a lot of time flipping our findings into questions so we can make theories about our characters and then search for more evidence based on our questions! We are also coming to book clubs with evidence to back up our ideas. I know what you're thinking- this can't be second grade right?!
Writing
Our poetry writing has come so far since the start of the unit. We are exploring with repetition and rhyming this week. We have also experimented with poems that can make your audience laugh. We are always working on handwriting and editing as we work on all of this fabulous writing! We are also beginning our preparations for our Author's Tea. Students will be practicing their poem they will read aloud on this special day!
Science
Well, we came up with great questions about plants and it has been so fun experimenting and planting in search for some answers! We had a special visitor come in and talk to us all about plants! The first investigative question we asked was- "Can seeds sprout and grow without soil?" Before break, we put seeds in a damp paper towel then into a plastic bag and hung them in the window for our week apart. When we returned- there were sprouts! The students were so excited to see this and it sparked even more questions. We will continue investigating plants based off our our own investigative questions.
Math
This week has been all about word problems and estimation! The students have grown so much in their ability to analyze and respond to word problems. They have so many strategies to help them answer the problems and they have grown SO much in the area of explaining their thinking. This week we learned a strategy that the students will carry with them for life! We call this "ballpark estimation" and it is estimating what the answer should look like before even answering. We did this mostly by rounding to the nearest ten's place for both numbers and then getting a rough estimate. We then knew our answer should be around that number. We solve the problem from there! With this educated guessing, we have also talked about rounding. We learned about the magic number five and what it means to round up and down. The students found this fun and have progressed quickly!
Dragonfly News
Please review the upcoming events and dates for the end of the year. There are a lot! We are also in need of plastic forks and spoons if you are interested in donating. :) Next week we have the wellness walk on Wednesday and bike to school day on Friday! Google permission slips have been sent home to families this Friday, if you have received one that means we still don't have one returned from you!
School & Home Talk
What is a dance move from your class dance for the plant play?
Give me a ballpark estimate for 44+29=?
What is your favorite kind of poem to write?
What does it mean to round a number to the nearest tens?
Do you have a line in the plant play?
What does it mean when a plant begins to germinate?
No comments:
Post a Comment