Sorry it's so late...

When I tell you I spent 10 hours on baseball fields yesterday, I am not exaggerating...welcome to my Spring! Both of my boys play travel baseball and Kate and I watch A LOT of games...my husband coaches, so its a family affair. Luckily it was beautiful weather, so it was a fun weekend to be outdoors.

As to last week...let me do a REALLY quick summary...

Language Arts
We held discussion groups last week. The topic was conflict/resolution. First, each child read the chapter independently. Then they each had to record what they believed was the conflict/resolution of the chapter. They met with their groups and each person had to share their thoughts, and then the group was instructed to discuss. I was very impressed with the kids' abilities to have organized discussions. They were allowed to change their minds, or add to their original ideas during the discussion. Lots of kids erased and rewrote as they participated...which to me was an excellent sign of being good listeners and discussion participants. However, during this process, it became evident that some kids are rushing through their reading and were not having strong comprehension of the plot. I am hoping to see some honest committment to comprehension this week!

We have finished the instruction of all cursive letters and will begin to use cursive handwriting on a more consistent basis. If you notice your child has particular difficulty with certain letters, use the link on my sidebar and go to Zaner Bloser...they make creating a practice worksheet very easy for users...I showed the kids how to make one, so you can always ask your child for help!

Math
Last week we focused on statistics...finding the mean, mode, median, and range of data. Each child worked in a group collecting data, organizing the data, calculating the data, and then presenting the data to the class. As we studied each group's poster we were able to clear up some confusion when it comes to finding the median...EVERY piece of data must be listed to find the median...I think they are more confident in this now. The kids also took a division test on Friday...testing their ability to estimate, long divide, and solve word problems.

Science
We spent a lot of time with fossils this week. Along with our virtual field trip, the kids read about fossils, watched video clips about fossils, and made mold and cast fossils. This fossil making lesson was a definite favorite...we used seashells to creat a mold cassil in clay, and then used plaster of paris to create the cast fossil inside the mold. I have some great pictures that I will try to load up in the next day or two.

REMINDERS:
Class pictures are TOMORROW.
Field Trip to Urbana High School is Tuesday to view Bye Bye Birdie.

I hope you and your family were able to spend time outside this weekend. Have a great week!