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Class Updates Week of 9.21

Friday

Today we went outside to write in our nature journals. The students’ had an assignment to draw a plant of their choice. Then the wrote about the reasons why they knew it was a plant.
Although we are still watching the life cycle of our mealworms we have begun to talk about plants as well. Today in class we planted brassica seeds and will be tracking their growth during the next few weeks so that we can see what the life cycle of a plant can look like.
In handwriting we reviewed how to write the lowercase letter t!
If you manage to get outside this weekend ask your child to show you a plant and tell you some reasons they know it is a plant. Some ideas the students came up with so far are:
1) plants have leaves
2)plants are usually green
3)plants can have stems
4)plants can have flowers
5)plants do not have eyes
6)plants cannot move themselves
Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday

Today we talked more about our green challenge: recycling! We reviewed the process of recycling after we watched a short Reading Rainbow video on it. If you would like to watch it at home the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1l8HXa3HLk. I simplified the recycling process into 3 steps:

1) Recycled stuff is sorted
2)Stuff is melted or mushed
3)New stuff is made
One thing that we’ve been talking about in class is how things that cannot be recycled are put into landfills where it sits taking up valuable space forever. To help us make a bigger impact on our world we are going to spend the last week of our challenge collecting medicine bottles, which cannot be recycled, and sending them to an organization that ships them to hospitals and doctors in Africa. The link for the website’s information is: http://malawiproject.org/medicine-bottles-for-malawi/. I’ve researched a bit more beyond that page link and found that they can take regular amber colored bottles, but also bottles for over the counter medicine as well. The organization wants labels removed and bottles clean, which I am planning to have the students help with next week as part of the project. However, if you feel more comfortable sending in bottles with their labels removed already  we will definitely accept them!

Wednesday

Today we visited our class tree! The students finished doing their summer drawings and also used their 4 senses to write about both of our trees. We’ll check on our tree again Friday to see if the leaves have begun to change. Many of the other sugar maples have leaves that are starting to yellow already, but not either of ours! (Although tree B’s leaves are definitely a lighter green than tree A’s)
The students worked on drawings of their mealworm pupa today and wrote down some observations about how it looks. Here’s what we are seeing in class:
Inline image 1
Coming home today are some Highlights Magazine ordering forms. All I need you to do with them is check “no” and give a signature! When our class turns in “no” forms we can earn rewards through Highlights. If you do want to order, by all means please do so and I will send in your information…but all I really need is your “no” forms so that we can get a new work in progress pocket chart!

Tuesday

Today I gave students their log-in and password information for Raz-Kids to bring home in their assignment notebook. Please feel free to have your child log in at home and explore the website. We will be using Raz-Kids during our listen to reading time in the classroom but I do allow students to read on Raz-Kids at home. Please monitor that the students are not just clicking through the book when they are supposed to be reading it to themselves.
We looked at our meal worms today. Some have entered the pupa stage! We’ll spend some time journaling about the pupa tomorrow during class.
Tomorrow is Farm to Table! Our classroom lunch time for Farm to Table is 11:00. If you signed up for Farm to Table lunch, please remember to send in your child’s plate, bowl, and silverware. (Or if you are taking it to Farm to Table and meeting us there, please let your child know so that we are not scrambling to find them things to eat on/with) Typically Farm to Table accepts walk-ins or people paying the day of, however that will not be the case for this month as Farm to Table is sold out! If you did not pre-order Farm to Table please be sure to send a lunch with your child.
Math Update:
We learned a new game today, Heads or Tails, with the goal of having students recognize different combinations of numbers that equal the same total.  I’ve attached the game board and game sheet to this email!
We’ll be learning another similar game called How Many Am I Hiding tomorrow that will help solidify the same concepts. I have attached the instructions and recording sheet to this email as well.

Monday

Today we worked on understanding what happens to the things that we don’t want. Our focus today was on landfills. We discussed that when we put things in the trash they either get piled and buried where they they take up valuable space forever or that they get burned which can give us energy but also contributes to pollution.
We’ll be talking more tomorrow about things that go through the process of recycling.
Math Update:
Today we started a new activity called “Seven Peas and Carrots.”  For this activity students were asked to find as many different combinations of peas and carrots as possible that would equal 7 vegetables on a plate. (example answers include 6 peas + 1 carrot or 3 peas + 4 carrots) The goal for today was that students recognize that there is more than 1 answer. As we do similar activities the students should begin to develop strategies for showing their answers as well as strategies for determining if they have all possible answers.