Catching Up
Prior to Spring Break, we had a few weeks of big items: expert projects, share fair, curriculum night, and gathering. The kids did a wonderful job presenting their learning in both the share fairs and gathering, but our curriculum night was an overwheming success. I received numerous requests form families to have more events like this in the future. It was a success because of your hard work and involvement. The kids could absolutely tell how much you valued their time and effort.
I have to say with these events behind us, it was comforting this week to get back into our routines.
Reading: We are currently in the midst of a literature study on Skylark, the sequel to Sarah Plain and Tall. The kids and I have grown to love these characters and you can feel the emotion in our classroom as we read each day together. We are using this book to not only to look at character development and interactions but also to examine setting and plot.
Writing: As writers we have launched our unit on opinion writing. We began by looking at examples in literature. The first text we read was Mo Willems, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.
We analyzed this fun text to find the opinion stated and the reasons that were given to support this. Then the kids broke in to pairs to choose an idea from a list of second grade opinions they had created. Each pair had to devleop three reasons to support their opinion. As we began sharing these, the discussion advanced much quicker than I expected into counter arguments and making your reasons stronger. They really bought into this unit. I am so excited to see how their individual pieces will develop.Math: Most recently we have studied the concepts of perimeter and area. We have also been looking at multi-step word problems and breaking them down to see what is important, what information may be unnecessary, and what the problem is asking. This helps us to develop our strategy for solving the problem.
Science: In our study of the states of matter, we have been investigating the characteristics of solids, liquids and gases. Through our experiments we have observed the transitions between states. During our Insulator Challenge, the kids researched and chose their materials and carefully planned the design for their insulators. We recorded the amount of ice left in each insulator at 1.5 hour intervals through out the day on Friday. At the end of the day everyone graphed their results. We will debrief tomorrow and compare results for each design to form our conclusions.
Important Dates
May 5 CFI Family Day @ the FirefliesMay 14-16 SC READY, grades 3-5
May 21 SC PASS, grade 4 & 5
May 17 CFI Family Dance, 6:30—8:00
May 24 Splash Day @ 1:30
May 27 Memorial Day Holiday
May 31 5th Grade Graduation @ 9:00
June 4 5th Grade Showcase of Projects
June 5 11:30 Dismissal (no AfterCare)
June 6 11:30 Dismissal (no AfterCare) Last Day of School
After 7 months of waiting this black swallowtail emerged from the chrysalis. We were very surprised to make this discovery during morning meeting one day but so thankful we hadn't given up on these. We still have a couple left so we will continue to wait patiently.
We continue to look at arrays like the one below. These figures lend themselves to repeated addition as demonstrated here and eventually to multiplication. This thought pattern also helps prepare us for the concepts of perimeter and area.
We held a Science Day of explorations just before Spring Break. One challenge was to create a the foil boat that would hold the most pennies.
Upon returning from break we used our knowledge of arrays and perimeter to launch an inquiry into area.
They quickly began to explore more complicated shapes.
As we studied the states of matter and looked at different substances and interactions, we investigated magnets.
Here the kids sketched out their plans for our insulator challenge.
I was so proud of the way they planned carefully and readjusted their designs as problems arose.
