Compasses are cool…
What’s Around Me?
This week, we reviewed what’s inside us and what we, and all humans, need to thrive. Alphas learned that we are going to explore many regions across our continent of North America to learn about their resources and how people use them. We learned that ancient humans hunted and gathered their food – the technology they had came from the sun – it always came up from the same direction. The word “East” comes from an old word for dawn. The word “North” comes from an old word for “the left!” Alphas discovered that if they face the East, the North is to their LEFT! The word “West” comes from the word for “evening star,” but could have come from an even older word for “shining red.” The word “South” comes from the word for heat – Alphas learned that ancient humans lived during the Ice Age, and you can bet that the food they were following (megafauna) would head towards regions where plants would be more likely to grow.
We learned that the shape of our continent came from the ocean surrounding it.
Alphas made their own compass roses in honor of this amazing technology that saved many lives of explorers of land and sea when landmarks were not available to guide them.
Alphas became cartographers and plotted out their bedrooms with their bird’s-eye view!
You have to write tiny to write “Gulf of Mexico” in the Gulf of Mexico!
In Math…
Ms. Kim’s Mathletes…
This week, we focused on the interesting change we made to numbers as we caught up on our post-break-October Calendar – Why, all of a sudden, did we have to start writing 2-digit numbers the day Fall Break started?! Why do we go from 9 to 1 and a zero? We know that when we use our fingers to count, after 10, we run out of fingers… Place Value takes time to absorb, so we ask these questions to see how students make sense of numbers and systems. Some students can count by tens but are unable to connect this with our decimal system and the way we group numbers by tens. We love grouping things… this week, we grouped gumballs. Using an activity developed by Marilyn Burns (one of our favorite Math Educators), Alphas made as many gumballs as they could in 60 seconds. Then we set out to group them into groups of tens…
We had a load of fun reviewing and practicing addition combinations that make 5 ( knowing they will be practicing combinations for making sums of 6 for their P&P).
Alphas find combinations for sums of 5 by playing with 5 Magic Golden Beans…
Ms. Emma’s Math Wizards…
This week started with some place value review to get our math brains working again!
..which can be really fun!
Then counting one more and one less of things around the classroom in order to prepare us for…
One more, One less board game!
Fibonacci sequence! We counted as high as we could and followed the exponential pattern all the way up to 144.
After reading Wild Fibonacci, we learned the Fibonacci sequence shows up A LOT in nature! Places like flowers, galaxies, and especially snail shells.
In ELA…
Ms. Kim’s group…
This week started with changes to our Language Arts routines: we have reading groups! We also have (individualized, at times) weekly work that sits in our book baskets and “Early Finish Stations” that have more handwriting work, and activities that help us build strong fine motor muscles that will give us lots of graphomotor support. Why? BECAUSE Alphas are going to use their writing to communicate information this quarter. Writing can fatigue us mentally and physically; we need a little hand-and-finger gym to boost our strength!
We wrote sentences, played games, and read with Ms. Kim in small groups, and started and finished the first page in our new “Book of Words!”
Using high-frequency words to write sentences….
Reading words by blending sounds…
After finishing work in their blue Book of Words, Alphas find decodable mini-passages to work on independently…
Ms. Emma’s group…
Began our creative form drawing booklets! These booklets are home to a weekly set of lines that we find everywhere in the world. First up – straight and curvy lines!
Next, how quickly can you find your lowercase/uppercase letter match and chain up?
Our little readers move outside! Yay for Alpha’s patio and cooler weather!
Non fiction exploration continues in the library!
Finally, we practiced an element of non fiction by creating labels about ourselves!
In Other News…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRIS!!! Thank you for sharing your special day with us and the delicious rice krispy treats!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDE!!! Alpha appreciates you so much!
And we loved the cotton cloud popsicles!
Alpha’s take on the gaga pit and tether ball! They are loving having outside recess time again!
And a few more creations from the week…
