General News
Thank you for attending Parent Night. If you were unable to attend, you can view the presentation by clicking here! We had our first class auction this week and it was a huge success! Gammas handled what could be a challenging emotional experience with enthusiasm and a lot of maturity. We’ve also been working on our recess experience – making sure games are gentle, inclusive, and fun for everyone!
Reading/Writing Update
This week we continued our work with writing paragraphs and used “wh” questions (Who, why, when, and where) to monitor our comprehension of biographical read texts. We read biographies of Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk, and Audrey Faye Hendrix and wrote summary paragraphs about the books. We also introduced the plot mountain summary device and learned how to fill out a plot mountain including all of the important details: characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, solution, and theme of the story. Gammas have been having fun filling these out and getting paid Gamma Bucks for thorough and thoughtful work!
Math Update
Multiplication was the name of the game in math class this week! Year 1 students practiced multiplication with multi-digit numbers (3 x 1) which was first modeled with base ten blocks so kids could visualize how the standard algorithm works. We’ll soon move on to 2 x 2 digit multiplication. Kids would benefit from becoming more fluent with their math facts–I will pay Gamma bucks for extra practice! (They can fill out a little coupon that is always available to grab.) Year 2 students learned how to multiply with decimals. A few needed reminders about 2 x 2 digit multiplication, but overall the entire group was very STRONG in this skill.
Theme Update
This week in theme we divided our labs up into 2-day hands-on lab sessions. Monday & Tuesday we focused on solubility-exploring the concepts of solvents and solutes with a lab that allowed students to compare water and rubbing alcohol as solvents. We dissolved three different types of salt after taking predictions about which solvent would hold more solute. We then learned why water is the “universal solvent!” Wednesday & Thursday we explored the power of hydrogen! We conducted an experiment using pH testing strips on Wednesday and followed it up on Thursday with a messy (but fun!) lab using red cabbage as a pH indicator.
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