Aug. 20-24, First full week of school!

Class Community

We’ve had an amazing week and a half together. Last week we did lots of get to know you and team building activities, including the “yank it” challenge, and “tilt a cup” challenge! It was tons of fun! With this we’ve been discussing growth mindset and what being a good teammate means. I enjoyed getting to see their me museums and we passed out complements on sticky notes. We tried to see who could build the tallest tower out of tape, marshmallows, and spaghetti- it was great to see them be creative and problem solve while working together!

Math

We’ve been doing a graph a day to introduce the first math unit and get to know each other better. We graphed our first day feelings, favorite pizza, favorite subject, and birthdays! Today, the kids came up with their own survey question and collected data to create their own graph.

We finished up a week of “inspirational math” and learned how our brains grow each time we make a mistake and explored all the different patterns we see in dots. Earlier in the week, they explored math tools and wrote down ways they could use them for math. We have lots of math manipulatives that we will be using throughout the year!

Writing

During writing time, we have decorated writing notebooks with things that inspire them as writers. Thank you to all the parents who donated tape or volunteered to wrap the notebooks! Today we created a heart map of all of the things that they are passionate about, care about, or think might be a great writing topic! Throughout the year, we will refer to this as it will be a great way to brainstorm and think of writing topics.

PAWS expectations

Each day we discussed a different letter of the PAWS expectations- Personal best, Active listening, Work together, and Safety first. We’ve read lots of books that relate to those topics and completed activities like the balloon challenge for them to practice working together.

Reading

The kiddos are already settled into the routine of reading workshop! They have learned how to find the perfect reading spot, pick out a just right book, how to book shop in our classroom library, and all the expectations that go along with workshop. We’ve discussed how readers have “inner conversations” with themselves as they are reading and how readers stop and think periodically when reading.

Science

On Monday, we set up our science notebooks. Students tried to “save fred” (a gummy worm)  by putting him in a life preserver (lifesaver candy) using only 4 paperclips. They had to work together and do some problem solving! They had to write down and explain their process along with pictures. Then, we discussed “what is a scientist”? I had them brainstorm and write all their ideas down. Then I told them I had the “answer” in an envelope…. They opened the envelope to find a mirror! It was awesome to see them make the connection that they are scientists- and that scientists don’t have to be a certain age, gender, or even wear a lab coat to be a scientist! Today we matched science rules to all the 5 senses and signed a contract agreeing to all the rules.

What’s coming up

Science- safety, tools, and careers, classifying matter

Math- continue with pictographs, dot pots, and different ways of displaying data

Reading- dive deeper into reading work shop, discuss books with a partner

Social studies- rules, roles, and citizenship