Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on December 4, 2017
Winter’s on its way! Our classroom is in need of lots of bottles of hand sanitizer to keep us germ free. This is especially important because there is no sink in our room for students to wash our hands. Please send in a bottle or two, and thank you.
This Tuesday marks our first Early Release Day! Teachers will be engaging in Professional Development across the district. I’ll be researching the growth mindset approach and charting next steps with students. Note: There is no lunch period on Early Release Days. However, we will have a snack break at 11:30 since kids are used to eating at that time of day. Of course, it’s up to you whether you’d like your child to eat something then or wait till s/he gets home!
This week I will be starting a snowflake jar (like a marble jar) in class for earning points toward a class celebration before the holidays. I’m looking to encourage habits of mind, especially good collaboration skills and self-regulation. Each day the kids will evaluate themselves with my help, and snowflakes will be added for each accomplishment, helping us reach our goal.
Our celebration will be on Friday, December 22nd. Kids will be invited to wear pajamas at school (more on the details to come), and we will spend the day honoring each other’s accomplishments so far. In addition, we’ll have a winter sing-a-long with the whole school; create a working craft to help measure weather at home this winter; write a narrative to accompany Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman; and more!
In math this week, students will be taught the basics of division. Just like multiplication was all about adding equal groups, at this introductory level they should understand division as splitting things into equal groups. Think about that while looking at the picture below:
Notice how it calls for creating a given number of groups with a set number of objects in each group. One way to divide, therefore, is to minus groups of 4 from the whole. Hence, 12 – 4 – 4 – 4 = 0. Students will be taught to try out this strategy, as well as others like “dealing” out objects into groups like you would do with playing cards (one in this group, then one in that group; two in this group, and two in that group; etc.). Like with multiplication, there is no expectation that kids work without objects or pictures to perform operations.
We wrapped up our study of animal adaptations with an investigation involving owl pellets. Students had a blast sorting through bones and beaks, all the while asking questions and hypothesizing about what creatures were on the owl’s menu and the adaptations required for such a diet. Here’s some pictures, plus some of us on a Nature Trail walk designed to focus students’ senses on the setting around them in order to write about it with elaboration:
