2nd/3rd: Week of Feb 3

Math –

Ms. Andrea’s math group wrapped up their unit on time & measurement by reviewing straight line measurements and the technique of “marking the spot!” We did some more measuring of large items in the room, this time in inches AND feet. Then we practiced converting our mixed measurements into just inches using vertical addition and regrouping skills from past units. We even had some time to break out our analog time games for a little bonus practice before we took our unit test on Thursday.

Ms. Kelly’s math group attacked tough perimeter problems with missing sides, moved from perimeter practice to area (It’s tough to transition from one to the other for newbies!), and

used tiles to assist us in finding the area and perimeter of different shapes.

Reading –

Ms. Kelly’s spelling crew wrapped up their practice of all the different ways to spell the long I sound, ending our week with an epic invisible inked dictation!

Ms. Andrea’s spelling group reviewed the Final E Rule for suffixes. It states simply: if a base word ends with an e and the suffix begins with a vowel, drop the e. Next week will be our final suffix review: when a “y” is changed into an “i.” This spelling unit is almost finished! This week we also brought out some tall tale Reader’s Theater scripts for some fun and fluency practice.

Book Clubs had two groups do a little switcheroo of their members before beginning new books this week: Ranger in Time (Oregon Trail) and Because of Winn-Dixie. The Betas love to draw cats, but when it comes to reading novels, their top pick goes to the pups!

Writing –

Our Beta writers have been working hard at planning their tall tales! We read two new tall tales: “Mike Fink” and “Davy Crockett.” We used “Mike Fink” to practice story mapping by identifying the climax and sequencing the events preceding and succeeding it. Then we turned our attention to our own tall tales. We used our problem(s) & solution (created last week) to develop our climax and mapped out the rest of our tale, being sure to include several of the elements of tall tales. A few Betas have begun to work on their rough drafts but most will start on Monday!

Theme –

Because we can’t transport back in time we are going to have to use our imagination! We have created murals with our wagon families! First step- dress as the pioneers did in the 1840s! Second step- create a backdrop. Third step- make wagons and oxen etc. to add to our murals! These adorable pioneers worked hard cooperatively to create some amazing westward expansion murals!

We have set up our Oregon Trail role-playing game! In role-playing games the players take on the role of a character in a fictional world. (Think Dungeons and Dragons) In our case- pioneers heading west! We are simulating what pioneers had to go through when they decided to move west. We began in Independence, Missouri and will cross the Missouri River, travel through Chimney Rock, Nebraska until finally reaching the northwestern part of the state of Oregon.

We used our “Trail Bucks” to buy the “supplies” needed (all in little card form so they can use them up in the game). To begin the journey, we rolled the dice to determine our fate as we headed out of Independence and into the final frontier!

Each roll of the die will determine what card to choose- a health, hunting, river crossing or random event card. Each card will determine your fate for that stretch of the trail. Will you get a snake bite? Lose supplies in a river crossing? Get dysentery? Or will you choose the right card and sail through each leg with little problem? Maybe you hunt and kill a deer so you have extra food? Or maybe the river crossing was a piece of cake?

We had our first role-playing session Thursday. We traveled from Independence and crossed the Kansas River, stopping for rest on the other side. On our short journey we have already had some hardships- a broken leg, a death or two from cholera (don’t worry, all kids are still in the game!), and while crossing the river we had a wagon flip and lose some supplies. But we also had some wins! Most wagons crossed without any problems, and some were able to shoot and kill an animal for food. We are resting, and eating well so we are prepared for our next leg on Monday.

After our long day of travel from Independence we were famished. Luckily we filled our buckets with milk and attached them to our wagons. By the time we reached our destination, our “Bump-Along Butter” was ready! (The pioneers were brilliant! No churning necessary!) We grabbed our cornmeal from the wagons, added a little salt and sugar and some fresh water from the river (Using our imagination of course! It came from the faucet! 😉) and cooked up some Johnny Cakes for dinner!

Johnny cakes are like a pancake made from cornmeal that originated with Native Americans. They were originally called “journey cakes” because they were easy to transport and could be eaten on long trips.

We topped ours with our bump-along butter and a little maple syrup. We mostly agreed that we would not want to eat these day in and day out,months on end, but they were pretty tasty considering how few ingredients were needed!