Friday
We had a beautiful Friday! Almost the entire class was green or above on our color chart and the lowest color we had today was yellow!
This morning we met with Ms. Siwy’s classroom for buddies! Each students was paired up with a 5th or 6th grader from her room. The students worked on writing a book together and they will be bringing it home on Monday to share with you! Now all of the books got done, but it did give the students an opportunity to spend some time talking about themselves with their buddy.
During Work on Writing the students have had 2 choices: writing in a class journal or writing in their individual journal. Today we added a new choice: squiggle stories! The students get a white piece of paper with a black squiggle that they must use some creative juices to turn into a picture. Then they write a story about their picture.
In the afternoon the students went out into the garden to harvest some more tomatillos and then each student got to help make our salsa! The students all got a chance to help with the making of the salsa by peeling their tomatillos, chopping 1 up, and putting it in the food processor. Everyone got a chance to try some salsa and we also cut up some fresh green peppers from out of the garden for the students to sample as well.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday
We had a VERY exciting day outdoors today! The students did all of their specials outside and we got to do a bug sweep with Ms. Naomi as well as a scavenger hunt! It was hot, but very fun!!
Tomorrow we are supposed to be eating lunch outside. We’ve asked for some clarification from the Deans but have not received it yet. So, I do not know where the students are eating or any other of the nitty-gritty details at this point. I talked with the students today about planning to eat outdoors and packing a picnic style lunch for tomorrow just to make their lives easier. However, If you do send in heat ups, we’ll figure out how to handle that situation!
The office is providing popsicles tomorrow for all the students as well. I know no details about these treats either except that they are coming.
Reminder: We’ll be using our harvest to make and eat some tomatillo salsa tomorrow. We also picked some green peppers for the students to try if they would like. It will be a very exciting food-centric day tomorrow!
(Math)
We have been working on writing number sentences and went out during math today to create number sentences inspired by nature! It was a fun activity and the work turned out so beautiful that I will be displaying it in the hallway.
In class over the past few days we have also been working on retelling story problems and then solving them. I ask 3 or 4 students to retell a simple story problem without solving it before we actually work on the answer itself. You can support our math story retelling by making up a story problem for your child and asking them simply to retell it without worrying about what the answer it.
We have continued to work on counting between 1 and 30. Many students are confident counters when counting forward, but backwards seems to be a challenge. Counting is an easy activity for in the car, so help your child practice and become more familiar with counting from 30 to 1 while running errands!
The students have also been working on writing and solving simple number problems (5+3=8). We are not worried about memorizing yet, just getting them used to what ___ + ____ tells them to do and giving them practice writing their own number sentences. The students have been solving the number sentences but most of them are using counters, drawings, or their fingers to get the solutions to their problems.
Wednesday
Today was our early release schedule and with 3 specials and math, we don’t do much as a classroom. We did fit in a reading session, so please ask your child about if they chose to read or write. Then ask them if they remember what they read or what they wrote!
Tomorrow we plan to be outside a majority of the day, so please plan accordingly when helping your child get dressed in the morning. I’ve also suggested students bring a water bottle as hot weather was predicted last time I checked. If you are a family that likes bug spray on your child when they’ll be outside, please feel free to do so before they come to school. Also, don’t forget to apply sunscreen! I’ve let the students know that if they typically use sunglasses or hats when outside that they are welcome to bring them, too.
Tuesday
Tomorrow is early release but I forgot to have the students write it in their assignment notebooks. Please remember to pack a snunch for your child!
Today we did another observation of our meal worms. We also gave them some more bran and another piece of vegetable so they can get water. Our goal was to find some of the moltings that the meal worms had left behind. We found many of them today!
On Friday we will be turning our tomatillos and some of our peppers into salsa! If your child would like to taste the salsa they can try it from a spoon or you can send in a small amount of chips or a tortilla for them to try dipping. I’m letting you know a bit early in case that will involve a quick stop at the store sometime this week. 🙂