Today in School...
January 31, 2012
...it was an early release, so we had a lot to accomplish in half the time.
Students worked in groups to read about 6 of the original 13 colonies and
complete a matrix about the reasons for its founding and the geography,
economy, and government of each. Many of the students have said, after
further reading, they want to switch their colony of choice from yesterday's
survey. We didn't have time to officially vote again, but we will tomorrow.
The students had a shortened music class before spending 30 minutes reading to
their kindergarten buddies. In math we worked with finding fractions on a
ruler and simple adding and subtracting of fractions. Students also spent
some time working on their "Soil to Spoon" posters for the Knox-Lincoln Soil
and Water Conservation District poster contest.
January 30, 2012
...students finished their colony billboards and presented them to the class.
Based on the information in the "sales pitch" and on the billboard, students
had a chance to vote for which colony they would prefer to live in. The
majority of students choose Massachusetts. Georgia and Maryland came in tied
for second. Only one student chose Pennsylvania. No one chose Rhode Island
or New York. Tomorrow, after reading more indepth information, students will
have a chance to change their vote. It will be interesting to see if anyone
does! We read about the Junior Iditarod and worked on vocabulary, story
details, predictions, and determining fact and opinion during reading class.
We had to take last week's spelling test and this week's spelling pretest. In
math, we examined and interpreted climate and precipitation maps. Students
worked on word problems with partners and reviewed some math skills
independently in math boxes. Students also continued working on their
"Shipwrecked" stories during writing and on their fish during science.
January 27, 2012
Snow Day
January 26, 2012
...students had band and guidance class. During science, they begin creating
fish, based on features of real fish. Students had to complete a planning
sheet, answer some questions about how the particular features they chose
would help their fish survive, and draw a rough sketch. Next will come the
fun part--drawing the diagrams and painting them with watercolors! They spent
some time in their small groups working on their colony billboards and
slogans/jingles. They read about Buck Leonard, Graham Hawkes, or Francisco de
Coronado and worked on vocabulary skills and identifying main ideas and
details. In math, students worked on elapsed time, statistical landmarks, and
a math box. Students also spent some time writing their "Shipwrecked" stories.
January 25, 2012
...students worked on tabulating and graphing data during math class.
Students are working in small groups in social studies to create a billboard
to convince settlers to move to one of the original 13 colonies. As part of
the project, students need to create a catchy or memorable slogan. Many of
the groups have chosen to do this in the form of a jingle. They are quite
creative! In reading class, they are working on identifying the main idea and
supporting details of text. Students read a short article about space
experiments and a longer article about spiders to practice this skill.