...the week was gone!
Our week was shortened due to the Christopher Columbus holiday from school on Monday, and the rest of the week seemed to just fly by! Below are some photos of our busy, full days this week!
Our week began with bus evacuation practice. The children learned how to exit the bus safely in case of emergency. They identified the emergency exits, the first aid kit, and walkie talkie. The children were great listeners during this very important practice!
Several of our reading lessons this week focused on the concept of visualizing to enhance our understanding of the text. The children practiced drawing pictures of their reading to deepen their comprehension. We carried this concept through to our guided reading groups this week, too!
We made sure to take a few minutes to share our work with a partner. Talking about our work takes our learning even further! The children were happy and eager to share their learning with their classmates.
In the library this week, the children became superheroes!
Another reading lesson this week reminded us ways to troubleshoot new words. The children were reminded to slow down, reread, use context clues, activate their background knowledge, use reference material, or to ask a friend when they get stuck!
Nicholas used the picture to help him decode the word "scraggy."
Riley used the map in her book to help her figure out the meaning of "tropical."
Mia used the dictionary to help her define the word "wealthy!"
Chase was excited to find information about the Green Bay Packers. He took a moment to investigate Roman Numerals!
These were a few of the words that the children practiced using the context to understand in our shared text during our whole group lesson. They did a terrific job of figuring them out based on the words around them in the text!
We are hard at work on our life cycles unit. The children have been looking closely at the life cycles of various living things including the plant, sheep, frog, and human! We noticed that some living things start small and just grow larger in size over time, while other things begin their life looking one way, and completely change into something else- like the frog and butterfly!
In order to build excitement and engagement in our learning, the children have chosen their very own animal to research and study in depth. We have been using the websites Pebble Go, National Geographic for Kids, and a-z-animals.com to learn all we can about our animals!
The children are recording their notes and interesting facts into graphic organizers.
Another component of our life cycle unit is to pick a class tree and follow it through the seasons. Here the children are making their first observations!
It was a busy science week for us, because our caterpillars arrived, too! We were quick to distribute them to the children so they could make their first observations. These little guys will grow quickly!
After spending time designing, building, tweaking and testing our cardboard challenge projects, our day to "play" was here! The children practically skipped down the hall with their designs- they could not wait to show other children who participated in the Cardboard Challenge what they had created!
The Dryden commons were full of interesting, creative, dynamic inventions that the students in 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades created. They varied from car washes, to hotels, to "whack-a-mole" games, to pinball! It was absolutely astounding to see what the children built and created out of literally a cardboard box. The imagination is a remarkable thing!
One final exciting learning opportunity for the children in 2-2 was this visit from Mrs. Schwarz's 4th grade class. The 4th graders stopped by to help enhance and strengthen the children's work on their personalized animal research projects.
I would say that an estimated 100% of the children were on task and focused during this learning experience! The children listened to each other, supported each other, asked each other questions, and worked together to find answers. Mrs. Schwarz and I kept looking at each other in amazement at just how well the children worked together during our first collaboration experience!
When our time was up, questions I heard included: "Is Mrs. Schwarz's class coming back after recess?" " When can I work with my buddy again?" "Can I have the same buddy next time?" I was so pleased with how wonderfully this first experience went, and I can't wait to create additional opportunities to learn with our 4th grade friends once again!
Our star student this week was Aaliya! We were happy to welcome Mrs. Baig and Aaliya's younger brother in for a classroom visit on Friday afternoon to bring our whirlwind of a week to a close. Mrs. Baig and Aaliya shared a book about the solar system and got us thinking about ways to help our earth! The children shared reasons that we love having Aaliya in our class including that she is an AMAZING artist, she has beautiful handwriting, she is a kind and caring friend, and she is a hard worker! We are so happy to have Aaliya in our class this year! :)
Have a terrific weekend!
:) Kelly O'Sullivan
