First/Second/Third
Language Arts & Science:
We were all Inspired in April, as it was Poetry Month, D.E.A.R. Day, and Earth Day! Using the power of I theme, students learned about people who are making a difference in the world by using their Imaginations, Ideas, and Inventions.
Meet Fionn Ferreira, a young man who is working on taking plastics out of water. He was inspired by the simple notion that “like attracts like.” Watch his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akCjg2s7xrs.
Fungus eating plastics: We learned that mushrooms could be one of the answers to our plastics problem! Scientists are studying how fungus can break down plastics in weeks instead of months or years. Visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t_GLXVKNr8
Watch fungus turn plastic into food for human consumption! Visit here: https://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/10/livin-studio-katharina-unger-fungi-mutarium-recycle-plastic-food/
Literature:
We read Our House is On Fire, Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet, by Jeanette Winter. We learned how Greta is using her voice to inspire youth around the world and challenge nations to do the right thing for our planet. We believe, as she does, that “No one is too small to make a difference.“
We reflected upon the gifts of trees. We read The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein and promptly thanked and group hugged our own Redwood.
Students created class poems based on The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown and watercolor earth paintings playing with different sized salt to create texture and depth.
April 12th, D.E.A.R. Day. Beloved children’s author, Beverly Cleary, coined the phrase D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read). She passed in January at 104! In her honor, we are reading aloud Henry Huggins, her first children’s book.
Students were introduced to The Better World Shopping Guide, a guide that rates companies based on how well they support their employees and how well they support the environment. Visit: https://betterworldshopper.org/
Students discussed the biggest problem in the ocean- Plastic! We discussed how our choices make a difference and how we can help support Mother Earth. We are taking action locally by crafting a letter to Driscoll’s to ask them to stop using plastic to package their berries. We love their product but not the plastic!
Garden and Animals:
Students started sunflower seedlings, and planted tomatoes and flowers in their gardens. Students continue to learn about fantastic insects. The class really enjoys its time with the animals and are very excited to have our chickens back!
Creative Movement:
Stick Dance Duets, students continued to work on their duets. Exploring silent conversations, students learn to listen to each other using a stick to communicate their common goal of keeping the stick in motion while changing levels, turning, and jumping.
Coming soon! Your child’s stick dance duet😊
First Grade Math: The first graders continued to hone their money skills with various games and activities. They practiced counting pennies, dimes, and nickels as they played the Coin/Dice game, Race for $1.00 and Money March.
The students really enjoyed buying and selling items. Each student had the opportunity to set up a shop and sell items and then to go shopping and buy items. On another day, the students followed up with stamping the price of their chosen item.
The first graders explored place value with a menu of hands on activities: The Five Tower Game, Cover a Flat, Who Has More?, Make a Shape, and Race for $1.00. All of the activities allowed the students to explore concretely our base 10 system.
The students spontaneously became interested in creating their own tangram puzzles when they were solving some made by students from previous years. Our transition activity became our main activity as students excitedly created things with the tangrams and traced the outline of their shape. It was great to see their creativity and enthusiasm in action.
They continued to work on mental math activities and skill work with task cards, geoboards, number scrolls, flip-overs, Guess My Number, and wrap-ups.
Second/Third Grade Math: The second/third graders worked on adding larger numbers with and without regrouping using a variety of manipulatives. They played Race for a Flat with the base 10 blocks, Race for $1.00 with dimes and pennies, and they rolled a die for Largest Sum Wins. Many of the addition problems were introduced with math stories made up by the students. As they became more proficient in adding with regrouping, the students moved onto the subtraction facts and subtracting larger numbers.
The second/third graders continued to work on mental math activities and skill work with Digits and Place, scrolls, geoboards, task cards, flip-overs, tangrams, and wrap-ups.
The kids were thrilled to have the pool open up for lunchtime swimming. And pottery with LInda was added to the Friday curriculum!
