You may have heard talk of Facebook this week. Don't worry, I am not having each kid create an account. Two of my reading groups are starting new chapter books. One group is starting Charlotte's Web and the other group is starting an A to Z Mystery book (their choice). Before we started, I showed the students my Facebook page and focused on the components of the page. The students will each be taking notes, capturing images, and having group discussions about each chapter of their book. Upon completion of the book, they will use a paper template and their notes to create a fake Facebook page for a character from the book. The students are really excited about this project. It is always fun to find new ways to get them to record comprehension information.
GEOMETRY is the focus in first grade math this week. I love this unit because it levels the playing field for kids that find some of the number and operation skills. The unit started with defining some two dimensional shapes by their defining attributes. We used words like vertices, lines, angles, and sides. The students spent the week creating shapes with smaller shapes and decomposing bigger shapes into smaller shapes. Ms. Figdor has this update for 2nd grade math: "This week in second grade math we have been exploring place value in the context of money. Students have been learning to recognize the value of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. They have been exploring how different combinations of coins can be used to represent a specific amount of money. For example, a few ways to represent 25 cents are: 25 pennies, one quarter, and two dimes and a nickel. During Number Corner we have begun to talk about three dimensional shapes. The students have been learning how to identify the faces, edges, and vertices of these shapes. Students enjoyed learning that three dimensional shapes with straight sides are called polyhedrons."
Mr. Cadwell Update:
I asked Mr. Cadwell to write a piece about his work with the students over the last week. Here is what he had to say. "Hi, all. This week students finished up the cumulative piece of our Social Studies unit on different communities: a letter to a penpal in Newark, New Jersey. We've covered rural, urban and suburban communities, and their defining characteristics. By fortunate coincidence, my supervisor at St. Mike's has a connection to a first-grade classroom in Newark whose students are also engaged in a similar unit. In our pen-pal letters, our students described the qualities of our rural town, and posed questions about life in an urban community. I will be mailing these letters off to our friends in Newark, and will expect a reply in the next month or so. We're excited to hear from them. In math, I've been teaming up with Tom to teach our geometry unit to the first graders, and supporting him as we get started on what will be an excellent science exploration: maple sugaring!"
We continue, as a school, to focus on social emotional learning (SEL) each and everyday. Today is SEL day. Last week I was reading an article of a project that a kindergarten class did around this work (check it out here). I used Wednesday to work on a project with the kids, that was inspired by the work of the kindergarten class. Take a look at the article and then the picture of our new board. Ask your child about their contributions to this.
