Week 3 Update
This was a short week, but we packed in lots of action! We had almost all of our Gammas back for class, which was nice to see that we are on the mends from last week’s sniffle-fest. Gammas were able to utilize a new music room we get to use during Language Arts class and also ventured to our first music class (which is held on Wednesday afternoons!) The Gammas looked gleeful on their first visit to music.. We are excited to add this experience to our weekly schedule.
Memorable Moments
Ms. Lorrie’s friend and former teaching colleague (Hannah Cotten) came to visit the Gammas to talk about the science of sound energy with a private performance on her harp. This also happened to fall on Ms. Lorrie’s birthday and the Gammas made her feel super special. Thank you for being so thoughtful and inviting.
What’s Up in Math Class?
All Gamma math students tackled a math “check-in” which was a great way for Ms. Lorrie to begin crafting a scope/sequence for our math pacing. (We can share this data with you at parent conferences, if you’d like more details.)
Year 1 kiddos explored the three types of math “stories” that would call for the operation of subtraction (take away, compare & find a missing part) We practiced regrouping across zeros (after exploring what this concept looks like with base-ten blocks so that students understand what is happening when we apply the standard algorithm.) Students created their own subtraction stories and played some math games to refine this skill.
Year 2 students learned about order of operations and all Gammas did a fantastic job solving strategically (step-by-step vs. mental math) Mental math is fantastic and we love it! However, we’d love to teach students how to solve problems systematically as Gammas begin to dip their toes into the lovely pool of pre-algebra.
What’s Up in Language Arts?
This week we continued to work on learning about perspective/point of view in a story and also learned about the plot mountain that tells the arch of events in a story. This helps us analyze the author’s meaning and choices which makes us great readers AND writers. We also dove deeper into fragments and run-on sentences this week. We learned about editing marks and worked hard at correcting poorly written pieces to make them more professional and grammatically correct. We had a lot of fun writing “really really bad” run on sentences and then correcting them together.
What’s Up in Theme?
During theme this week we dove into exploration of the scientific method so that kids could begin percolating on their Science Fair experiments. First, we explored vocabulary (hypothesis, data, critical thinking, variables, etc.) and then discussed each part of the process for conducting a scientific experiment. We ended the week with a cannon launching simulation where kids worked in pairs to make observations, ask questions, form a hypothesis and then test it. Partnered teams were then able to share their “findings” with the group.
