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| Exploring Pumpkins Using Our Five Senses |
Pumpkins
Today we read our weekly Scholastic News: What's Orange and Bumpy? The students were thrilled to be discussing a favorite seasonal fruit! Once we read the article and identified the main idea & key details, we went back to find "juicy" adjectives throughout the text. The words squishy, creamy & reek made us curious to know what other describing words could be discovered using our senses with pumpkins. Then Mrs. Surrette, Owen & Alivia unveiled 2 freshly plucked pumpkins from her garden. We sliced them open and got busy! The students brainstormed a list of words that included slippery, slimy, wet, yucky, hard, smooth, shiny and more. Ask your child what adjectives they would use to describe a pumpkin!
Rekenreks
On Wednesdays Mrs. Jones, our Numeracy Specialist, comes to join our math lessons and usually brings some fun activities, math tools and games. This week she brought Rekenreks! They look similar to an abacus, but the Rekenrek has two strings of 10 beads each, strategically broken into two groups of 5 red and 5 white. This provides a visual model that encourages young learners to subitize or instantly see how many.Here's a resource from www.therekenrek.com that shows how children use the rekenrek as a math tool:
For example, a child might view the number 7 as one group of 5 (red), and 2 more.
Similarly, 13 might be thought of as 10, and 3 more.
For example, a child might view the number 7 as one group of 5 (red), and 2 more.
Similarly, 13 might be thought of as 10, and 3 more.
Brockway (written by 1S)
We went to Brockway Nature Preserve last week to learn more about beavers and how they live. We also learned about wetlands, the animals that live there and food chains.
First, Mrs. Chapman came to school to introduce herself and tell us about Brockway. She showed us beavers skulls, teeth marks, beaver skin, beaver teeth and we made a mural of all the animals that live at Brockway.
Next, we went to Brockway and we got to catch some of the animals. Rebecca and Lilly caught a crayfish. Aisling caught a tadpole and then fell into the pond! After, we got to see all the creatures that everyone caught. That includes bullfrog tadpoles, crayfish, water striders, water bugs, salamanders, water boatman and lots of dragonfly nymphs.
Then, we built beaver dams. We got to see a real-life beaver dam and lodge. Then our challenge was to build mini dams in plastic bins with sticks, mud and leaves. None of our dams passed the water test, but if we had more time I bet we could've made the dams work.
Finally, we went back to the busses and went back to school. We loved our field trip to Brockway. Thank you parents for helping.
Roll, Say, Keep!
Here's a fun way for us to review and learn High Frequency words. The game board has 6 squares, one for each number on the dice. A word card is placed in each square. A student then rolls the die and selects the card in the corresponding square number. If the child reads the word, he/she keeps the card and replaces it with another word from the deck. If he/she is unable to read the word, the partner reads it and the card is put back in the square for more practice.
Library Visits
