Week 21

Students posing for the camera while working on a shape pattern.

Students working on shape patterns.

A potato suspended in water for a science experiment

Martin the Moose (our writing project explained below) in the garbage can.

We had another great week!    

Announcements: Check out spellingcity.com, where you can look up my spelling lists and play computer games using those words. 

Funny Stuff From Kids: After getting candy as a birthday treat, I told the class that they had a lot of sugar, so I’m glad they have P.E. to get out their energy.  One boy said, “Yeah, and all that sugar followed by P.E. will give us diabetes.”

After getting Pixi Sticks (a sugary powder-like candy) for a treat, students proceeded to try to make Kool-Aid with it during recess.

When asked to write the number six. . .“6ix”

After learning about Yellowstone animals in the winter: “I wish I could live in Yellowstone to be friends with those lonely animals.”

A conversation that a student had with me after school: “Hey, Mr. Smith.  My dad can take down  his brother, but his other brother can take him down.”. . .My thoughts were, “That was random.  I wonder what the students tell their parents about me.”

Homework: Thanks for making homework successful this past week.  Students need to practice reinforcing those skills at home!

Social Studies: We had fun learning about how to say hello in Tongan: “Malo.”  We also learned a little bit about pets in other countries, including the world’s biggest snake.

Math: This week we practiced using tools to help us add and subtract.  For example, we practiced using a number line, and we practiced using an addition chart for addition facts.

Project Read/Spelling: This week we focused on clusters (3 consonants together), such as str, spl, and scr.  The students did very well on their spelling test.  A few students wanted to turn the “str” into a “chr.”  So we will be practicing it more next week.  

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Students are progressing on their facts and instant words!  Our rocket math chart is filling up more every day.

AR: We’ve had a slow start because of testing in the computer lab, but students have done well at taking tests on their own. 

Writing: The students have had a blast with writing this week.  We’ve been practicing expanding our simple sentences using “where words.”  Every day I hide “Martin the Moose” somewhere in the room.  After everyone finds him, students have to write a sentence telling where Martin was hiding.  This is to practice a very basic introduction to prepositions, which we call “where words.”  (For instance, “Martin sits on the table. . .Martin sleeps under the desk. . .Martin lays in the closet.”  The where words (prepositions) in those sentences are on, under, and in.)   

Science: For science this week, we began discussing plants.  Our current experiment is soaking a potato in a jar of water to see what happens.