ELA Update
This was finally the week where we finished our novel! On Monday we had a discussion about the very exciting culmination of events in chapters 16 – 18. We also took some time to do in-class reading of the book together this week for the first time. Chapters 19 – 21 are so important for character development and we needed to know how things ended up for our characters to thoroughly and accurately analyze them. Reading these chapters aloud together in a voluntary popcorn reading was a blast because we got to feed off of each other’s reactions and excitement and we found out we have some gifted reader-aloud-ers in the room who can do great voices! Towards the end of the week, when we knew how things ended up in the book, we were able to fully analyze our selected character’s values, accomplishments, goals, beliefs, virtues, vices, and more with depth. We also talked about the types of characters you see in a book: main character, antagonist, protagonist, and tertiary characters, ect. as we decided who to focus our projects on.
Math Update
There might be something (good!) in the water: math class continues to amaze. The kids’ willingness to push through new (harder!) learning was really impressive. P&P from last week revealed that many Year 1 kids needed a refresh on interpreting decimals with a model. We refreshed together and that skill is looking sharp now. We spent most of the week refreshing Quarter 1 skills to prepare for next week’s ‘check in’ via a collaborative small group Jeopardy game. They sparkled! Year 2 dove into new learning exploring factorization. First, we learned how to distinguish between prime and composite numbers. Next, we started factoring numbers! We used “factor rainbows” to find ALL the factors of a number and “factor trees” to find the prime factors of a given number. (We also sprinkled in a few divisibility tricks–like how to easily/quickly discover if a number is divisible by 3 by adding the digits to see if the sum is divisible by 3! Neato!) We also ended the week with a small-group Jeopardy game in order to prepare for next week’s check-in. It was a harder file, and the group kept saying it was “too easy!” Music to a teacher’s ears!
Theme Update
After moving at record speed through the American Revolution and the process by which our founding fathers developed our current system of government, it was finally time to get to talking about the presidential election process. We started with exploring the reasons political parties were formed to begin with and then spent a day researching the history and evolution of political parties—ending with our current mostly two-party system. (In our divided times, it was quite a challenge finding kid-friendly resources to explore our current candidates but we were able to make it happen!) We explored the election process and took a deep dive into the electoral college–why it was formed, why some people support that system and others do not. We explored the requirement for running for office and what it takes to win the presidency. The kids compiled their research from in-class videos and handouts, both, to create informational videos explaining the presidential election process. We are still mid-creation but cannot wait to see how they turn out! Next week, we’ll present our amazing at-home revolutionary war projects and finish up our election videos. We are also planning a guest speaker visit from Arthur’s mom Jen to talk to us about her job as a lobbyist. (Thank you, Jen! The kids will love it!)
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