First/Second/Third
Hi Everyone! We are excited to share a day in the life of your child over the past weeks of the new year. The group continues to grow in amazing ways as they face the challenges and joys of learning and being in these most unusual times.
Language Arts: We celebrated the power of I and Black History Month by learning about Iconic people, with Important messages, who Inspired and Imagined a better world.
We learned about the following individuals:
Wilma Rudolph, a sickly child who overcame polio and became the first woman to win 3 gold medals in a single Olympics. She was known as the world’s fastest runner and after retiring from professional sports in 1962, she became a 2nd grade teacher.
Ruby Bridges, the first African American girl to attend an all-white school in the South forging the way for desegregation of schools.
Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball. Against all odds he broke barriers paving the way for integration in sports and American life.
Barack Obama, our 44th president and the first African American to win a presidential election. President Obama had great ideas to support families and encourage people to work together. He served two terms and is considered one of the most influential presidents in United States history.
Valentine’s Day: Students explored couplet poems, silly poems and odes that inspired Valentines for each other and their families. The students enjoyed decorating and eating valentine cookies and giving valentines to their classmates.
President’s Day – Students co-created a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris to congratulate them on their new jobs. Each student wrote an individual postcard requesting attention to an aspect of the environment they would like to see protected.
Bill of Rights and Responsibilities – students learned about the 3 branches of government, civil rights, and human rights. We created our own rights and responsibilities as members of the Orchard learning community.
Science: All About Owls
Do you know what owl call sounds like this? “Who, who, who cooks for you?”
Ask your student ornithologist. Students are learning all about owls and owl adaptations. We are researching and gathering information for our Owl Reports. First graders are focusing on Barn Owls, while the 2nd graders have chosen their own owl to research. A highlight of the month was our owl pellet dissection. Thank you to Jodi (Jamey’s mom) for donating pellets.
In the Garden: Entomologists- student scientists are beginning a unit of study on insects. Soil and insect habitat explorations continued in February, as we observed the garden in winter.
First Grade Math: The first graders continued to explore money through games like Penny Nickel Exchange, Race for a Quarter, and Money March. We enjoyed the books “Alexander Who Used to be Rich” and “A Quarter from the Tooth Fairy”.
The students worked on the concept of addition through the games of Roll and Add and Big Dice Bingo. They shared their strategies and created story problems for various equations and worked on problem solving task cards to reinforce addition.
In January, the students investigated the Four Triangle Problem as they worked with a partner to discover all the solutions for combining four triangles. They explored geometric patterns and concepts with tangrams, pattern blocks, and geoboards.
The students continued to work on their number scrolls, practicing number formation while recognizing the inherent patterns.
Second Grade Math: The second/third graders honed their money skills with the games of Spinning for $1.00, Race for a Quarter, and Dig for Buried Treasure. They enjoyed the same literature books as the first graders where money was highlighted in an engaging way. The students continued to practice fact power (basic addition and subtraction facts) through Name That Number, Rattle and Roll, Beat the Calculator, practice with their triangle fact cards, and recording fact family houses (9+7=16/7+9=16/16-7=9/16-9=7). We explored shortcuts for taking away 9 and 8. The second and third graders also explored place value through base 10 blocks, investigations, and Roll and Build with place value dice. They focused on balancing equations with the addition task cards and adding 10 and taking away 10 on the 100s chart.
The students continued to work on their number scrolls practicing number formation and recognizing number patterns as their numbers increased. In January, the students worked on the Four Toothpick Problem, exploring all the various ways four toothpicks could be placed following the guidelines. The exploration was followed by the Put in Order Problem, and followed up with a game involving the various combinations.
They also worked on their spacial reasoning and geometry concepts with the tangrams, geoboards, and pattern blocks.
Leadership: The students worked on I Messages and “feeling” words. I feel _______, I wish ________ . We explored solutions to problems with being mindful of the solution being: Related, Respectful, Reasonable, and Helpful The students continue to do an amazing job of giving and receiving compliments at the onset of our weekly class meetings.
Miscellaneous photos from the playground and the classroom:
