General News
- Part 4 of the science fair project (along with tri-fold display) is due on Wednesday, November 20th! Join us for the Science Fair and to view all of the other amazing projects in the Community Hall from 9:15 – 10:15! Both Gamma and Middle school projects will be on display!
- Gammas will again have reduced/optional homework next week due to our upcoming Thanksgiving break.
ELA Update
This week was filled with more reading and more book talks! We used some fun discussion cards to bring some new flavor to our conversations with questions like: what actors would play the characters from your book in a movie, what are the themes of the novel, if you were to run into the main character from the novel on the street what outfit would they be wearing, sharing about a character in the novel you admire and why, and so much more! Gammas also spent time in book clubs reflecting on the problem and solution in their books. We reviewed plot mountains (we use these again and again all year!) with some books we’ve read all together as a class. As Gammas finish their genre study books they create a plot mountain to check comprehension/summarize the major plot points in the book. These plot mountains will also come in handy as they begin drafting their own fiction stories in their favorite genre after Thanksgiving break. The Gammas are also really enjoying writing reviews for their books to add to the classroom binder. This binder lives in the class library to help students find great books to read – all reviews stay in the binder forever so gammas can also leave a legacy in the room and help future readers discover new books!
Math Update
Math was much fun this week! Year 1 kids continue to tackle fractions with much bravery and resilience. Their work is looking very solid. We practiced simplifying fractions and comparing them by finding a common denominator. At week’s end, we used a special decoder to make our way through an immersive Arctic Pond escape room which let us practice many fraction skills in a creative way. (Vivi had a wonderful idea of having Gammas craft their own content-based escape rooms as an option during tech day of station rotations!) Year 2 kids learned how to “copy-change-flip”–aka divide mixed numbers. After breaking promises to Arthur several weeks in a row, Ms. Lorrie was able to craft a “riddle race” for the group which was almost exclusively above level (6th grade skills) and the group did fantastic! Absolutely impressive! Next week, we have plans to put our fraction skills to work and cook something sweet as a treat before we head off to Thanksgiving break.
Theme Update
After finishing up some very elaborate and creative diagrams of plant and animal cells on Monday we dove into some of the specifics of how plant cells function, in particular how they aid in the magical process of photosynthesis! We learned about how roots pull water and minerals up through the xylem of a plant and into the leaves where chlorophyll and chloroplast, along with the help of sunlight, aid in the creation of glucose (aka food for the plant). We watched the amazing video that gammas loved so much they asked to watch it thrice! We did a close reading about the process of photosynthesis and summarized our knowledge by making paragraphs of our own using keywords. We then created crafty diagrams about photosynthesis. Look for our work in the hallway soon!
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