There are no dull moments in 2-2! Read on to find out about another exciting week at school.
It is our turn to use the class set of iPads! The kids are so excited to be able to \ extend their learning throughout the day using technology!
The luck o-the Irish is around us! The children made pots of gold to decorate for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day! After reading
Charlotte's Web, we were inspired to come up with "juicy" words that Charlotte could write about us on her web! Charlotte would be up all night writing some of THESE words! :)
In science this week, we broke apart a piece of granite to take a closer look at the minerals that comprise it. After looking at our class samples of feldspar, quartz, biotite, and muscovite, we then looked at the granite fragments for these same four minerals. The children were so excited to find them!
One of our geography questions this week was to gather facts about Antarctica. We paused for a few minutes one morning to read a short book with our small groups about Antarctica to gather important details!
Before watching the movie Charlotte's Web (upon completion of our reading of the novel on Friday,) we did some deep thinking about the text first. The children each received a photocopy of the chapter "Uncle." With their small groups, they re-read the text that they had heard once before. (They did a phenomenal job of combining both their recall with their decoding skills to determine those multi-syllabic words! Wow!)
Their goal was to highlight words that described Wilbur and his competitor at the state fair, Uncle.
Then using the words they highlighted, they filled in a compare/contrast chart that allowed them to analyze the similarities and differences of the characteristics of these characters more carefully. They did a remarkable job noting not only the appearances of Wilbur and Uncle, but also their personalities!
Using a QR code, the children practiced using the QR reader on their iPad to zoom right to the website Brainpop Jr.!
It was Ava's week to shine as our star student this week! We welcomed both Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy to our classroom!
Ava got the children thinking about the density or viscosity (pouring speed) of 3 different substances: water, vegetable oil, and corn syrup. She dropped a few paper clips in each one, and we were able to see that the magnets pulled the paper clips out at different speeds. The magnets traveled the fastest in the water, then the vegetable oil, and finally the corn syrup- it was the thickest!
Ava read a cute rhyming story to her classmates called "Never Tease a Weasel."
Such a cute picture of Ava and her parents below! Thank you so much for coming in to see us! We are so fortunate to have such a happy, sweet, caring, and focused girl in our class! Ava is a great leader in our classroom and sets a terrific example every single day. You had a great week, Ava!
Our last persuasive writing assignment is complete! The children chose a favorite place that they like to visit, and they created beautiful persuasive posters to convince us why we should go there!
Danny chose Keystone, Colorado. I want to go and taste the delectable hot chocolate he wrote about!
Chloe wrote about the Wisconsin Dells. The water slides sound like so much fun.
Evalin chose Circa '57. It sounds like there is something for everyone on the menu! Yum!
Jennifer wrote about the excitement at the Monster Truck Show!
Maeve made me want to pack my bags and head to Destin, Florida, to the Big Kahuna water park!
There is no place on earth like Disney World! Wait till you read about the heart-pumping rides and the amazing food!
Max was thinking of warm places as he wrote his persuasive poster. Head to Mexico for the beautiful beach and tasty smoothies!
Kelly wrote about the delicious food at her favorite restaurant- Chipotle!
Alex made Noodles sound like the perfect place to go to warm up on these cold winter days!
Anna wrote terrific reasons why we should head to Florida! (Let's go! :)
Ava claims that Portillo's has THE best cheese fries around! I felt hungry after reading her work!
Faiz says there are no beaches like the ones on Lake Michigan. If you are lucky, you will even see a sea gull!
Tyler believes that everyone should escape the cold and head to Clearwater, Florida!
Amina's favorite place to visit is Puerto Rico! I love that she started off by asking a question- a great persuasive tactic!
Demetra wrote great reasons to visit Rainbow Falls- you will feel like you are on vacation without going very far!
Erick loves to ski, and you should too! You better head to Wilmot before all of our snow melts!
Do you like going to the beach and playing tennis? Pack your bag for a trip to Kiawah with Andrew!
It was so much fun to see the children come up with a unique topic to write about! Their ideas were both strong and organized, and their personalities shined through in their writing. Our biography unit is up next!
Other items to note:
- We finished learning all of our cursive lowercase letters! The children were excited to practice writing their spelling words in cursive this week!
- We finished Unit 8 in math on fractions. We are looking ahead to measurement in Unit 9!
- We completed our round of our Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level testing. This round of testing took a bit longer because the children have made so much progress since the fall! I attached their new guided reading levels to the book order forms we sent home this week. The books on the flyer are labeled with guided reading levels, just in case you were in the market for some new spring reading material that closely matches your child's abilities.
- Progress Reports will be coming home on Friday! Can you believe we are already in our final trimester of the year? Time is starting to fly by quickly!
That's all for now! Have a terrific weekend.
