This Week in 2nd/3rd

Math looked a little different this week as we didn’t have Ms. Skylar on Monday or Tuesday and several kiddos were also out – so we combined math groups! Second year Betas played multiplication fluency games while the first years had lessons on elapsed time. As a whole group they needed to come up with a creative word problem for the answer of 94 cows, and these math wizzes didn’t disappoint! Upon Ms. Skylar’s return her group focused on partial products and were introduced to the standard algorithm for two digit by one digit multiplication and they grasped that new concept with ease and nailed their independent practice! Ms. Kelly’s math group jumped into measurement and discussed how to measure using non-standard forms, practicing with links, dinosaurs, and cubes! Back to our regularly scheduled program on Monday.

With so many students out, our reading block time was nice and lowkey. The kiddos thoroughly enjoyed our mellow atmosphere connecting with their peers over word games, audio books, free reading and a read aloud called “Seaman’s Journal” that aligns with our theme.  Next week we will get back to our usual rotation of phonics, book clubs and independent practice! Writing time was super busy and we learned about a new Tall Tale character – are you familiar with Johnny Appleseed? Well, we spent time learning about his fictional tale as well as the non-fiction version of his story and added him to our story maps.  After reading and analyzing a number of Tall Tales, these Betas are now experts and are ready to begin writing their own! We spent some time reviewing the traits of a Tall Tale and then got right down to business designing a unique character and setting, sharing with the class to help inspire others who may need some ideas. Soon we will work out our basic problems and solutions on our graphic organizer – we can’t wait for y’all to be swept away on crazy adventures when you read our stories! 

This week in theme we discussed….wagons! How big they are, all of the parts to a wagon and the trail that the wagons took out west. Then things really started getting serious as we needed to begin discussing and “buying” all of the needed supplies for the long journey into the frontier. Each wagon family did an amazing job stating possible needs and wants, debating with each other to decide whether or not certain objects were essential and what could be spared. We talked about the importance of working as a team in order to have the best chance at survival. After Shipe Park these pioneers were pooped and with our especially small group we began crafting the supplies for our wagon. Packing food is a top priority – sacks of flour, beans, rice, crackers and bacon etc. were made by hand. We can’t wait to hit the trail and document the journey to the Oregon Territory in our new Westward Expansion journals!