Rainy days and Tuesdays, never get us down…
Around the World in 60 Days…
We headed to Europe this week!
Visiting the second smallest continent we discovered that the Ural Mountains separate Europe from Asia. And as we detailed our own maps we saw that there are several seas with interesting names that surround a good part of the westward jutting peninsulas. Names such as Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea..
We listened to the story of The Littlest Matryoshka – all about the beautiful Big sister doll who carries her little sisters within her. We looked at what traditional, decorative Eastern European clothing looked like. And then we made our own Matryoshkas…
The littlest Matryoshka led to the discussion of how past and future generations are nesting within us. We looked at our fans and said our grandparents and great-grandparents names. We honor them in a rainbow of colors that surround us…take a look at some of our beautiful ancestor fans…
On Wednesday…Austin chef, owner of Bake Austin, came to visit our class to share what it was like to grow up in Germany. She told us that as a kindergartner she walked by herself to to the school that was 10 minutes from her house and that in Germany all of the neighbors watch out that the children are safe.
She shared how fun the German celebration of Oktoberfest brings everyone out to celebrate good food and fun events like roller coaster rides and dancing. At Oktoberfest she said there are candied apples and fruit kabobs dipped in sugar (that caused a gasp of delight). She also described the amazing playscapes in Germany and the old, beautiful castles you can visit.
Then she told us a story about how pretzels were created. The legend involves an impatient King and a chef. The chef was given the impossible task of creating a pastry that you could see through to the sky in three different places.. If he didn’t create it…he would be killed. He had failure after failure and finally he gave up and threw the rolled dough into a corner. When he picked it up there were 3 places you could see the sky! Viola – the pretzel. Chef Pascal treated us to a basketful of ones she had recently taken out of the oven for us – they were still warm!
Before she started Bake Austin – a Kid’s Culinary School, Chef Pascal used to be an instructor and parent at AHB! Bake Austin has been featured on several local and national shows – including NPR. Here’s a link To learn more about her or to check out her fun cooking camps….Bake Austin
This week’s Reflections…
Sharing our buddies…showing them how our families listen to one another.
We talked about respecting one another’s personal space. Personal space changes depending on where we are and who we are with. We need to listen to our bodies and take care of our space when we don’t feel comfortable.
We need to pay attention to other people’s expressions (faces), and movement (like stepping back), and words (“stop,” “I need some personal space”). Alphas practiced giving people space when they noticed they were stepping back from them. They also practiced not touching each other in tight situations – like when all of them were drawing at the same time and had to keep moving no matter what! Sometimes we run into one another, and when we do, we say “excuse me,” or “pardon me!”
This week in Math…
Ms. Kim’s group…
This week we reviewed expanded notation for 2-digit numbers, played “Two-digit War,” “Guess my Number,” and practiced subtraction facts!
They figured out the number with only 10 tries!
Ms. Eliza’s group…
We expanded our practice of time to include half hours and a quarter past and we found that telling time to the minute makes more sense too. Applying our knowledge of fractions (quarter, half, three-quarters and whole) and knowing how to count by 5’s makes learning how to read an analog clock all the easier! We played Around the Sea double digit subtraction & What’s the Time Mr. Wolf.
This week in Language Arts…
Ms. Eliza’s group…
In Writer’s Workshop, after drawing our “dream” houses last week we wrote about them in our journals. We also wrote about something we love to do.
In phonics this week we looked at blends that include l….BL, CL, PL, GL, FL, SL.
Everyday we take time to read.
Ms. Kim’s group…
We shared our Special Possession questionnaires – there were a LOT of blankies we love in our class. We showed tremendous focus writing our paragraphs (or MORE) about our Earliest Memories, and we practiced discerning some long “a” sounds in order to recognize which would fit the “ay” or “ai” vowel team. We re-read Patricia Pollacco’s memoir Thundercake in order to talk about facing some of our own fears. Alphas wanted to try this recipe (perhaps we will do that…stay tuned)
Lucy nails Spell It- Keep It!
In other news…
This weekend some of our friends are going to the Math Pentathlon tournament! We wanted to show them some appreciation and cheer them on for representing our school at their meet. Even though some of our friends won’t be able to be there on Saturday, they were there every week to learn the games and help each other practice being good gamers, and (even better) great sports!
Some of our serious Mathletes
“How funky is your chicken?…..”
“…How loose is your goose?…”
In STEAM…
Alphas took to hand knitting quickly and discovered that “it’s so relaxing!” Some were so excited by their new-found skill they knitted during recess.
