Narratives, Place value, and Caterpillars- Oh my!

The children have been very hard at work the last several days on our new unit in writing- Personal Narratives! We first learned what ingredients are necessary to create a personal narrative. These ingredients include: 

• writing in first person using pronouns including I, me, and my
• elaborating on a small moment or event
• developing a beginning, middle, and end
• using order words to show a sequence of events
• including the thoughts and feelings of the characters
• problem/conflict resolution

The students brainstormed a few different possible story ideas from their lives before selecting the option that they felt they could write the most interesting details about.  They have chosen the most fascinating story plots! Problems the children are writing about are: runaway pets, missing legos, a nest of wasps, a toddler escape, a broken window, and missing sporting event tickets! I am SO impressed with the creativity, details, and dialogue the children are inserting into their writing! Their stories are turning out absolutely terrific and I can't wait until they are finished and ready to be shared!

In math, the children have been working to add and subtract money amounts using decimal notation. They are doing a great job of lining up the decimal point before adding or subtracting, and making sure there are always two places after the decimal!

We also worked with place value up into the thousands place this week! We will expand and build number sense into the ten thousands and hundred thousands place as well!

Mrs. Neumann came to visit the class on Wednesday afternoon for a fun and engaging Art Appreciation lesson with our class. They reviewed "American Gothic" by Grant Wood!

As we delve deeper and deeper into the history of Arlington Heights, the children are developing an understanding of what the land in our area was like long ago, before the settlers arrived in their covered wagons and began to develop the land.  This week the children learned that the Native Americans were able to fulfill their 3 basic needs (food, clothing, and shelter) through use of the land around them. We also discussed the arrival of the settlers and the new law of 1830 that forced the Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River.

 Some very small visitors arrived in our classroom this week! The unit coming up after we finish our study of the history of Arlington Heights will be Life Cycles- focusing on the butterfly. Our caterpillars made their entrance into our classroom this week! The children were so enthusiastic to take a close look at these tiny creatures and begin to record their observations in their Life Cycle cycle student journals. 

It was Jack's week to shine as our Super Star 2nd Grader this week!  It was Crazy Hat day at school, and all of the Fitzgeralds arrived showing their school spirit!

 Jack and his mom demonstrated how to create a simple ciphon using a tube and a bowl of water

 Jack read a cute story to his classmates about dragons and their love of tacos!

It was so much fun to have the Fitzgerald family in for a visit this afternoon! We especially loved their "crazy hats!" Everyone agreed that Jack is kind, caring, intelligent, sincere, and is eager and excited to learn new things at school! We are so fortunate to be able to spend time with him each and every day.