Scarlet demonstrates what the CVC word “beg” means…
What’s Around Me?
This week, Alphas learned that one reason we have deserts across the globe has to do with mountains – like the ones in the Pacific Northwest! We call this phenomenon the shadow effect.
Half the Alphas act out mountains and the other half use cottonballs-clouds to rain on the land…
Most of the rain falls on this side of the mountains…the other side of the mountains doesn’t get much rain at all – which contributes to the desert region of the Southwest…
A diagram of the “shadow effect...”
We learned that in the Northwest Region, the mountains are covered in huge trees. Many animals inhabit this region. Alphas focused on some amazing mammals, and each table team randomly received one to create. They used rulers to measure their actual height and width. They used photographs to document details like antlers and claws, and the color and texture of their fur.
Grizzly Bears are HUGE!
Wolves are longer than they are tall…
Our roustabouts help clear the area…
It takes a lot of practice, a lot of conversation, and a lot of patience and generosity to collaborate!
Let the sketching begin!!!!
In Math…
Ms. Kim’s Mathletes…
A new month means a new calendar! Alphas’ number sequence and direction have improved so much since August!
We learned a critical thinking game this week called Nim. We loved playing it and sharing our strategies. We are working to build fluency as we learn math facts. This week, we talked about the commutative property in addition problems. We saw it in play as we used a new grid format to add to the sums of 5. We escaped a maze using our knowledge of sums to 5. We played Race to the Top to practice sums to 7, and we drilled down on the value of each digit in 2-digit numbers.
“HEY – 1+2=3 and 2+1=3!”
Ms. Emma’s Math Wizards…
Welcomed the month of November with our class calendar! As always, students had to find the correct home for their numbers after creating them.
Calendar work continues when trying to put the days of the week in order. It’s especially strange that school starts on Monday but the calendar week begins on Sunday…
The truest test is making your own calendar without the class calendar to reference! We know that November starts on a Sunday so the rest should be easy…right?
Our 100s chart work continues with games and mini worksheets!
And an eager student who dedicated half of class to filling out the entire 100s chart using their number pattern recognition! More spectacularly, they went row by row as to make it more challenging! I am thoroughly impressed!
When playing “Mystery Number” students learned that the 100s chart is a lot like a map! If you are looking for a number that is 10 more you would jump a row up, and if you were looking for a number that is 1 less you would move 1 to the left. The conversation continued when playing our map game which takes away the numbers and leaves you to use directional terms to find the “treasure” or in our case, the dice.
And a little movement to solidify those directional words…jump to the left 3 times! Hop on one foot diagonally! Backwards 7 spaces!
In ELA…
Ms. Kim’s group…
We started our week with our very first dictation challenge! Alphas had to think about all the sounds they heard in a word in order; we took turns spelling them for the group to check our answers.
The nonfiction book we started this week is The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish.” We used this to inspire our writing this week…
Alpha wrapped up their “What am I?” Fact-Riddles…
We made observations of the contents of our lunchboxes; some mapped and diagrammed, others made detailed lists of their observations…
We tried our hand at writing a list of instructions. We were inspired by the description of how Qiruk, the mother in our story, made boots!
As we finish our daily writing, we continue working on handwriting, phonics, and reading with Ms. Kim.
Ms. Emma’s group…
We were reminded what a fact is when making our animal books! On one side students list 3 facts about a specific animal, and inside the book they draw a picture of the animal. This creates a fun guessing game for other classmates to find out what animal you have!
Smoothies! Although we all wish they were real smoothies, these letter blend smoothies still feel pretty magical! How does Ms. Emma put in two separate letters like “s” and “t” into the smoothie bag but pull out a joined blend “st”? Maybe it’s all the smoothie noise the students make that’s the real magic.
Our S-blends made many great words lists…
And drawings!
Week 4 of our form line drawing booklets left us with many spirals to appreciate.
Finally, we began the first step of creating our nonfiction books! We learned that authors follow many steps when publishing their work. First, they have to brainstorm! When our ideas get moving, creativity can take us to a VERY funny place…
The second stage of creating a book is the draft stage! Some alphas enjoyed the weather while making the first version of their stories.
In Other News…
Happy Birthday Scarlet!!! The alphas ALL want you on their table team!
And thank you for the delicious popsicles!
Morning songs just got more fun with rhythm sticks!
