Math
Ms. Kelly’s math group had a blast comparing numbers in the hundreds using base ten blocks, super fun games and of course pencil and paper, too. Fluency in math is so important, so how did we practice math fluency this week? A race to 100! Ms. Kelly vs. the kiddos (Check out our Insta to see who won). The games didn’t stop there! Ms. Kelly introduced a new game called Spin to 500 that aligns perfectly with their new unit on place value, it was a hit! These Betas LOVE math and ended their week exploring number patterns with their peers.
Ms. Skylar’s math group had another week of BIG numbers, kicking it off with s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out numbers into expanded form from standard, base and word forms. These Betas took all of their knowledge of place value and ordering numbers and channeled it into rounding to the nearest tens, hundreds and thousands places. They used a number line for a visual guide and learned the rules of rounding – when rounding to the nearest ten look at the ones place, when rounding to the nearest hundred look at the tens place. REMEMBER the “high five” rule, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 round up, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 round down. They ended their week with a challenging new game, Rounding BINGO – It moved FAST and required quick thinking and lots of focus, super fun!
Literacy
Our love of literacy continues to grow everyday! As always, the kids think our teacher mistakes are hilarious and are quick to correct them. Silly sentences, dictation, word sorts, games and book clubs were just a few of our tasks this week – reading and writing keep us so BUSY! Cursive continues to be a favorite activity of the Betas and has greatly improved in the few short weeks that we’ve been practicing it. We set aside time to focus on the four types of sentences – statement, exclamation, question and command, each of them uses different punctuation and the kiddos are now becoming experts at identifying them! A few more Betas have completed the final draft of their imaginary invention paragraphs, we hope to finish them up soon, we can’t wait for you to read them! Book clubs have been great, with some gentle encouragement from teachers and peers, a few more Betas felt brave enough to try reading their chapter books aloud which is really empowering and also helps the teachers learn more about each reader so that we can provide support if/when needed. We are very proud!
Theme
Kids building circuits – SAY WATT!? We have had quite the week exploring batteries, insulated wires and tiny light bulbs – we generated exciting conversations about how each little part plays a special role in creating electricity! It all started with a simple circuit and by the end of the week these Betas worked together to build series circuits, parallel circuits and circuits with on/off switches using a metal paperclip! As always, we updated our Travel Journals along the way with our findings, it’s filling up fast! Learning about electricity has been de-light-ful! Theme time is the BEST!
