General News
We had a great first week back from a nice LONG break! The Gammas jumped back in wonderfully.
Kids received their at-home Theme P&P project packet guide. (All the info is duplicated on Whippermathers.com if you would like to access directions/deadlines.) Each Monday, a small “chunk” of the project will be due. (We’re teaching some executive function skills along with studying the human body!) Next Monday, Gammas should have completed a snappy Google form to tell us their body systems preference. We’ll continue to scaffold the project week-by-week until kids bring home a poster to decorate to market their “Body Systems Amusement Park Ride” creation!
ELA Update
This week we picked out our self-selected reading books and talked about how we will be in charge of our own book picks and reading life for this final quarter. ELA homework will have different writing prompts each week and reading logs and reflection activities about their books. On Tuesday we reviewed the elements of a persuasive essay: hook, statement, reasons, conclusion. On Wednesday and Thursday we started to explore script writing! We read a funny script together as a class about the Underground Railroad and took note of the features of a script. The biggest difference between writing a script and writing narrative fiction or informational pieces is that most of the story is told through dialogue in a script. On Thursday we analyzed a script with colored markers and took our time breaking it apart to notice where the author uses dialogue, character emotions, and action to move the plot forward. We wrote a quick script together as a class as well as individual scenes. Next week we will either partner up or start working alone to create our own short scripts to be turned into puppet pal movies soon!
Math Update
It was shockingly lovely to see that the Gammas did not skip a beat jumping back into math instruction. Year 1 kids learned about number patterns, namely in the form of input/output tables with one-step basic functions. Year 2 kids continued working on finding area, but this time we branched into more middle-school-ish shapes like triangles and composite figures. (On our Quarter 3 student survey, some students expressed wanting more challenges in math! I purposely put out some fairly challenging options this week and it was really cool to watch the kids “eat it up!” Both classes ended the week with a fun little mechanical-art project: we made input/output table number patterns (one-step or two-step–student choice!) and then we concocted some function table “machines” out of paper plates. We painted them to create interactive function tables. Neat!
Theme Update
We jumped into our human body systems unit and the kids seemed eager to learn all about the body systems that keep the machines that are our bodies in a lovely state of homeostasis! On Day 1, we did a general overview of all the body systems and kids broke into teams to tackle an interactive note page that mirrors that one they will complete individually for the at-home project. On Day 2, we explored homeostasis and all the ways the body systems work in conjunction to support each other. Kids crafted cheers/skits to explore this topic. (They were adorable!) Finally, we had a special visit from Ms. Lorrie’s sister-in-law who is a physical therapist. She talked to the kids about the ways the musculoskeletal system works together to move our bodies. We finished the week with a fun game of “Bone Bingo” after kids learned the names of some major muscles and bones. Next week, we’ll move to the nervous system!
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