Can you say WOW? POW WOW? It was a fantastic day...I took tons of pictures and video clips...I'll make a movie this weekend and post it by Sunday...ask your kids about it...it was SO fun!
Language Arts
We spent a good portion of the week working on a story in the program Junior Great Books...the story we read was The Ugly Duckling. We read the story twice...during our second reading we made notes in the story as to which parts had actions that were sad, mean or scary to the ugly duckling. We analyzed the story and spent time thinking from the perspective of the duckling. On Thursday we had an inquiry based discussion...we sat in a circle and each child had time to independently answer a question. Then we spent about 20-30 minutes discussing our ideas and sharing our thoughts and support for the question. At the end of the discussion (you would have loved to have been a fly on the wall..."I agree with so and so"...OR..."I have a different opinion from so and so"...OR..."To piggyback on what so and so said"...they're such little adults). I was very impressed with their ability to discuss! We also worked on stories this week. The Dancing Bear toy store is having a contest and some kids have decided to enter...others are just writing a story for fun...the contest has "story starters" that have to be a part of the story...you can see this contest if you click on the following link http://dbeartoys.blogspot.com/. We move into the PLAYS unit Monday...a favorite of all kids!
Math
We worked on the volume of squares, rectangles, and cylinders this week...your kids LOVE formulas! We were able to discover the formula of the squares and rectangles based on different measurements and filling the numbers into all sorts of equations. Cylinders...not so much. For cylinders, I shared the formula Pi x r2 x h. (I don't know how to make a small two on blogger to show "squared".) Once a few of our friends shared that Pi = 3.14, and after our discussion about radius being half the diameter, we were ready to roll...sort of. We had lots of practice...they would walk into the classroom in the morning, grab a calculator, and start to work on the day's problem...they would talk to each other about how they were solving each problem and also tell each other what they had done incorrectly....it was WONDERFUL!!
Social Studies
Our economics unit is in full swing! We are almost finished with our friend, Econ!! I am looking forward to PART 2...we'll be creating companies and developing products...more to come next post.
Important Dates:
Tuesday, May 11 - last field trip of the year! We will be going to the Frederick News Post for a tour, stopping off at Mount Olivet Cemetery to listen to some historical facts about Frederick, and ending up at the Frederick Keys Stadium for a tour and lunch!
Wednesday, May 12 - two and half hour early dismissal
Friday, May 14 - Strawberry Festival
Check out the past two posts for information about summer reading lists
and summer programs offered around our area!!
Have a great weekend!
