Alphas are prepared for anything!
This week in Our Big Backyard…
We started with ice. As ice melted we saw that it became liquid and as it got warmer it transformed into vapor! And presto! We learned the 3 states of water. We talked about how heat and cold affect the different states by speeding up or slowing down those tiny little water molecules.
We created droplet art and left the drops on tables. 
When we came back the next morning the droplets were gone! Where did they go? Some of us thought that they had been absorbed into the paper, but they hadn’t all run together. So what happened? We soon realized that the water had EVAPORATED and left the paint behind!
Then we explored how that happens in the world around us starting with a puddle in the sunshine that EVAPORATES into clouds, CONDENSES with other water droplets until they get so heavy that they PRECIPITATE in the form of rain, snow, hail and sleet. It’s the WATER CYCLE!
Ms. Kim did an experiment with a solid glass bottle. She filled it to the brim with water and then placed it into the freezer.
The next day when we examined it – we found that the water had expanded and shattered the glass.
Just like when rain falls on rocks and seeps down into little crevices then freezes and expands it breaks the rock apart weathering the rock. Rocks are weathered other ways too by tree roots, sand and waves, etc.
We then went back to our trays to become mountain builders. We put ice and water on top of our mountains. We observed how water moved the rock and erodes it – this can happen with rains, snowmelt, avalanches, and gravity pulls it all downward. That’s how we find the rocks that are deposited in creek beds, near seashores and lakes…DEPOSITION!
This week in Language Arts…
Ms. Eliza’s group…
Our letters of the week were Bb and Oo. First letter sounds, rhyming words and syllables are all part of our phonics learning as well and we play games with them every week.
We started our first Author’s Study by learning about Mo Willems. In a short video we visited Mo in his studio to learn how he comes up with his characters (he has a sketchbook that he doodles in), what it’s like to be a writer, and where he keeps all of his original drawings (in colorful drawers in his studio). We read books from Willems’ Pigeon series and they are SO FUNNY! Next week we’ll be reading about Mo Willems’ silly, but thoughtful duo… Piggie & Gerald. There’s a very fun live performance at The Kennedy Center with Mo Willems, which we didn’t watch (it’s about an hour), and it could be fun for your family to enjoy together…(pigeon sneaks into it!) Mo Willems Storytime . There is a treasure trove of his books at the Austin Public Libraries.
Landon & CJ already had experience drawing Pigeon and each of them taught us their method. Then we drew our own.
After reading our poem of the week Solitude by A.A. Milne we talked about the places we like to go for a little quiet time and then drew our peeps in their quiet places.
Ms. Kim’s Group…
We learned that when we hear words with short vowel sounds that end in a “k” sound, we spell it with a “ck.” We became experts at spelling words with “ck” endings!
We learned that folktales are a type of story that has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. They were told long before they were ever written down and no one knows who the original author was, though there are many famous people who have gathered certain types of stories together, like Aesop, and the brothers Grimm, and Hans Christiain Andersen. Every Alpha could recount the beginning, middle, and end of many, many folk tales; they knew many characters in fables, and they were experts when it came to settings in fairytales too — even when the stories were told in a slightly different way than they heard it before. We had so much fun acting this week! Who knew we had a class full of thespians?
“Can I have a load of straw.?” “I will BLOW your house down!”
A very large relay race between tortoises and hares (so boastful!)
Once, a lion was playing with a mouse., it begged for its freedom…when the lion was trapped by hunters the mouse saved him… and the lion promised that no one in his pride would ever eat mice again!
Puss n Boots gives gifts to the King…
Puss n Boots on a recon mission to find out who owns the fields these workers are working in…
The King and Princess think they are rescuing the Marquis de Carrabas…while this guy just thought he was taking a bath in a river!
Puss n Boots outsmarts the Ogre by getting it to turn into a mouse…and eats it.
This week in Math…
Ms. Kim’s Group…
Our last pattern to talk about this quarter are fractals! We looked at many fractals we can find in nature. They are a kind of “growing pattern.” We made some for ourselves and used fractals for our winter tree in our season cycle project!
We talked a lot about math symbols this week. While letters in the alphabet are symbols of the sounds in words, numbers are symbols we give to quantities we count. We played “Would you rather…” with numbers. We asked, “Would you rather have 10 or 1?”
The Alphas said,” TEN!” I asked, “Hmmm… 10 tummy aches?” They changed their vote. We asked, “Would you rather have 7 or 2?” They said “TWO!” “Wow, that’s surprising, you’d rather have only two cookies?” This time they wanted the greater number. We asked, “Would you rather have 1 or 9?” and a few of them said, “OF WHAT?”
One of the first strategies we learn when we begin to compute is “counting on” or “counting up” with addends 1, 2, or 3. The trick of has to do with noticing which addend is greater and then counting on. Alphas did this sooooo well. We are expert counters.
Next, we talked about the + symbol. This is another symbol mathematicians use to show that they are combining amounts. After that we played “Buddy.”
Way to use that numberline Ace!
Ms. Eliza’s group…
This week we built, expanded and wrote our numbers in the 40s. We discovered that if we know our double facts, solving “next door” numbers isn’t that difficult – although it does take a little practice to wrap our minds around the idea. If we know 6+6=12 then 6+7 will be one more 13!
We played a variety of games to practice the concept including…
Is it a Double Bubble or a Double Plus One?
Doubles and Doubles Plus One BUMP!
Doubles Plus One Four in a Row
Showing that we can think about facts that add up to 10!
In STEAM…
We built umbrellas for our peeps…but FIRST we needed to make arms so they could hold their beautiful umbrellas
