Posted by kbonfigli | Posted in Within the Classroom | Posted on February 26, 2017
The month of February flew by and I can’t believe it is time for our Winter Break. The students worked hard and we had some fun too! The next time I see you, it will be March. I look forward to sharing your child’s progress at our parent conference either on March 6th and 7th. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can find the link here. You can also call the front office and Jeanne can help you schedule a conference.
Reading: We read several books that had the theme of “kindness”. Students were looking for evidence of characters that were kind in their independent reading books as well. During the last two weeks of the month we documented characters and classmates acts of kindness on a heart and hung on the tree in the hallway.
Writing: Students published their informational writing on an animal of their choice. They researched with a partner, chose two main ideas to focus on, planned their writing on a graphic organizer then wrote in a Google document. While working in docs they also added photos with captions to support the text. The final doc was printed in color as well as posted to their blog.
Math: Students have been introduced to fractions, and we will revisit again this coming trimester. During one of our last days we had fun making “fraction pictures.” Subtraction with trading is a focus right now as well as continuing to develop multiplication strategies for 6’s, 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s.
Science: We had a blast with our inquiry unit on magnets and electricity. Students learned about magnets repelling and attracting and were able to test the strength of a magnet. They also learned what it takes to make a complete circuit and how a switch works as well as what items make good insulators and conductors. Our final inquiry was to create an electromagnet and discover what increases its strength.
Other events:
Coding: Students are getting more and more creative with Scratch. I challenged them to come up with a way to show kindness with the coding they have learned so far. I was amazed with their creativity. They will learn to put some of their creations on their blog. In the meantime, ask them to show you what they are working on!
Kids on the Block puppet show presented on what it’s like to be visually impaired. Gigi got to try it out by walking with a stick while blindfolded.
Lunch in the classroom. And the school gave us free cookies!
Wacky Winter Walk. We made masks for this event. Check out the kids ready to be wacky!
Music Concert: It was great to see you at the concert. Thank you for bringing your child to participate. It’s a good experience for them to perform for an audience. The energy was so high when you dropped them off in the classroom. They were excited to show you what they had learned during music class.
We shared Valentines on February 14th and enjoyed yummy sugar cookies!
That about wraps up the month. It was jammed packed with events. Enjoy the week off.