March 27-31, 2017

This week our dictée words all contained the French digraph "ui." We returned to our weekly dictée after last week's Francofête Spelling Bee. In Writer's Workshop, the kids learned how to use a graphic organizer to plan a story before writing it.

In our read-alouds, we talked about the characters, the setting and the problem/solution or plot. These are the elements they are beginning to plan before writing, along with sketching the beginning, middle and end of their story. The stories are getting longer and more complex as a result.  The really keen writers are editing with me and then producing good copies: either a book of their own or a story for our class book of stories. All the students are headed there, but some may need to see the steps play out more slowly.  I read the class some of the stories written by my grade 1 class last year, for inspiration.

We also began singing a new song about the weather (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8KNtyZb4g). We added a question about the weather to our morning routine, and we are now charting the temperature. The kids need to remember to check the thermometer outside in the school yard each morning.

Our Show and Tell each morning has been very interesting, with good questions and comments from the class. Thanks for all the preparation at home!

We continued our work with pattern blocks. Each table group was given 6 shapes with the challenge being to fill them, each with only one type of pattern block. I saw some great teamwork as they worked to solve these spatial puzzles.

 Those who finished early went back to finding more new ways to fill the hexagon from last week, with photos of last week's solutions available on the iPads.

The board that held the flowers counting to the 100th day of school is now the Math Board, with references for basic vocabulary words, symbols and other math content. 

Like Ms. Frizzle in the Magic School Bus shows, I am encouraging the students to TAKE RISKS and MAKE MISTAKES! When students make a mistake publicly, I congratulate them for taking a risk and remind the class that this shows that person is learning.

Our geometry unit is winding down now, and we are going back to solving story problems using math manipulatives and math drawings. After a review of the materials we used so often in the fall and the steps in solving a problem, the students solved a story problem in their books and then we looked at different solutions together on the carpet.

Our structures unit is also winding down. We watched an episode of the Magic School Bus that deals with structures, materials and engineering. In the show, the students build a bridge with gummies and bobby pins. We followed this up with a building session using marshmallows and toothpicks. The kids were disappointed that they couldn't keep their structures, but I told them they could do the activity at home. They put together some very interesting structures.

We began discussing ENERGY! We made a list of things that move, and then for each we identified the energy source. The kids identified the energy sources of some familiar occurrences, learning the French vocabulary for electricity, battery, gas, wind, etc.