Math
This week, Ms. Andrea’s math group warmed up their math minds by writing 3 digit numbers in standard form, solving a plethora of place value riddles! The kiddos have been building numbers into the thousands and also practiced identifying the value of a digit based on its placement, as well as decomposing large numbers by writing them in expanded form. This busy group also read and illustrated three and four digit numbers using place value blocks. They found that 0 can sometimes be an important placeholder in a number.
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Ms. Kelly’s math group took all of their knowledge of place value and ordering numbers and channeled it into rounding to the nearest tens and hundreds places. They used a number line for a visual guide and learned the rules of rounding – when rounding to the nearest ten look at the ones place, when rounding to the nearest hundred look at the tens place. REMEMBER the “high five” rule, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 round up, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 round down.
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Literacy
Our love of literacy continues to grow everyday! As always, the kids think our “mistakes” on the News and Announcements are hilarious and are quick to correct them- we have now added noun identification! Grammar practice before we even officially begin our day! Sentence comprehension, partner reading, word sorts, games and audio books were just a few of our tasks this week – reading and writing keep us so BUSY! Cursive and print practice continue to be a favorite activity of the Betas and we have seen some lovely letter formations in the few short weeks that we’ve been practicing.
Our insect fictional final drafts are complete! (Or very close due to absences or length of story ;) All we need to add is a catchy cover! Next week we will create a cover AND we will explore poems for two voices and partner up to write some of our own!
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Theme
Our little entomologists learned all about the not so lowly worm. 🪱 Did you know a worm has no arms, legs or eyes? Or that baby worms are not born. They hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice? Or that even though worms don’t have eyes, they can sense light, especially at their anterior (front end). We read about, observed and performed experiments on nightcrawlers and red wigglers! We observed how they moved, and if they preferred wet or dry as well as light or dark, and recorded all our findings. When we finished up we gently played with the little guys before putting them back in their dirt home.
And Instead of dissecting worms to check out their anatomy (No eyes? 5 hearts! What???), we made models of all the interesting parts inside their bodies using clay, and labeled them – including the brain, five hearts, the crop and gizzard, and lastly the intestines.
We also began creating a BIG world for our peeps- we are pretending we have shrunk to the size of a bug. How would we see the world differently? We began by sketching out a plan with our team, creating a supply list, painting the inside of our boxes a basic sky blue and green grass color, and then the fun part! We brought our list to the craft supply closet and got inventive! Big blades of grass, giant leaves, snails as pets! We can’t wait to see the finished scenes! More to come…
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