Our first full week in the Gamma room focused on getting the “flow” of our daily schedule and getting-to- know each other. New Gammas (Ms. Lorrie, included!) got a sense for the community feel at AHB. 💗 We all settled into the routine pretty smoothly, especially considering what a big transition it can be to start off a new year! The Gammas have been fantastic across the board–kind, hard-working and eager to learn.
Happy Birthday, Scarlet! August 21st
Happy Birthday, Ciel! August 22nd
Gammas brainstormed community agreements, including both academic and social goals. We arrived at the following 4 agreements:
*Stay in the sweetness zone (Be kind to others! Thanks to Robert for a great tagline!)
*A&A–Adapt and Advocate (Stay flexible, speak up for your needs and advocate for others)
*#SaveOurClassroom (Take care of classroom furniture and materials! Thanks for the awesome tagline, Louisa!)
*Always try your best (With the caveat that your best may look different on different days! That’s life and 100% OK!)
These Gammas love to read! After one full week of school we’ve filled nearly two pages in the library check out binder! Gammas are trying lots of different books and even choosing to read during snack, recess, and lunch! During Reader’s Workshop this week we talked about choosing “just right books,” making connections while reading, and held several book talks. Gammas showed off their curiosity, enthusiasm, and sweetness during our book talks this week!
This week we talked all about the components that go into making a fantastic, complete sentence. We learned about the different types of sentences: declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogatory. What makes a complete sentence: subject and predicate. Sentences with questions: using who, what, when, where and why. Finally, we closed out the week with conjunctions: sentences that use because, so, and but, etc. to connect ideas in a sentence. We also worked journal writing into our sentence study by looking for examples of these types of sentences in our own writing!
In theme, we began to explore our quarterly topic: exploring forms of energy and electricity. We began with a lesson on kinetic vs. potential energy and students spent time crafting creative structures to help demonstrate the difference between the two. Next, students learned about static electricity and participated in fun hands-on activity exploring static charges using balloons and bubbles. Some students requested access to link we used in class for this activity, so here it is!
In the next few weeks, we will continue exploring different types of energy. We’ll also encourage students to begin percolating on Science Fair project ideas.
In math, all Gammas focused on a place value review with Year 1 focusing on reading/expanding big numbers to the billions and Year 2 students concentrated on decomposing decimals (with and without decimal models!)
Gammas were introduced to the “whippermathers” web site–designed for Gammas to access tutorials and extension activities, as well as a short overview video of what we are learning for the week and why! Your Gamma was tasked to show you the ropes (we’re working on teaching students this year how to be resourceful independently) but in case you missed it, you can watch an overview of the math resource page here. We finished the week with some fun math “adventures”-a scavenger hunt for Year 1 and an “Try to Leave Ms. Lorrie’s Living Room” escape room for Year 2 mathletes.
1. A small group of Gammas exploring potential and kinetic energy 2. A special birthday celebration for our new Gamma, Scarlet 3. Gammas in our “happy place”–recess!
