Chemical Engineers, Hands on Nature and the Imagination Playground

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Week of October 22nd

This week was a busy week. We got to be Chemical Engineers. We were working for Creative Juices Company and surveyed consumers in our classroom to find out the best color for their strawberry orange juice. They made 3 colors for consumers to choose from and then graphed the results of what everyone chose. They then wrote a Product Research data report and then wrote a friendly letter to the President of the company to let her know our results. Ask your child what they discovered. Pictures of our Chemical engineers can be seen in this week's slide show. We also had Hands on Nature this week. We learned about beavers and muskrats. We talked about how they both adapt, dressed our UVM intern up as a beaver and got to test our teeth as a beaver chewing a tree (carrot) so it falls over and eating bark(chocolate) of of the branches (pretzels). Check out our pictures in the slideshow. I'd like to thank Colleen, Cecilia, Lynn and Caitlin for coming in and presenting the information and coordinating the fun activities!! This was our last week at the Imagination Playground. The class was very inventive this week. There were several vehicles made and some great beds for resting:) Photos are in the slideshow. In math we have learned about army, formica, leafcutter and harvester ants. We sung songs to learn about them and then recorded information about where they live, what they eat, what they look like and other interesting facts into an ant journal. We have then spent a couple of days solving ant problems. We will solve some more ant problems next week and then make our own ant problems. You'll get to see them at your child's conference. Please remember to sign up for conferences the week of Nov. 13th. You can access them on this blog or on our website. I am hoping families will come with their child so that your child will be able to share their portfolio of work with you. Have a great weekend, Nancy

Week of October 15th

This week was a short week. In math we have begun our new intergrated unit and are learning about ants. We watched a short video about ants yesterday and read 2 poems and have already learned a lot about ants. We started with making charts about "what we know about ants" and "what we wonder". I was very impressed with what the students already knew about ants. After reading the poems today we were able to answer two of our "I wonders". Check out our charts below. In science we are learning what an engineer does and what technology actually is. Have any of your children shared this with you? If not ask them. I was surprised by what technology actually is. Next week we have Hands on Nature and will be learning about beavers. Some of the book orders have come in and books were sent home today. The rest of the orders should be here soon and I will send them home as soon as they come. Just a reminder that the Unified Arts Curriculum night is next Tuesday along with gift wrap pick-up if you placed an order. Have a wonderful weekend, Nancy

Our Shelburne Farms October Experience

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Week of October 8th

This week in Math we finished up Unit 1 and will begin Unit 2 next week. Unit 2 is an integrated unit where we learn about ants and math at the same time. The Big ideas for Math will be problem solving, communication and connections. In reading we are focusing on reading our stories closely. This week we wrote about a character that we learned about in a story we were reading closely. We will continue with this next week. In writing students are still writing about things they know well. This week we focused on how we can use partners to help us brainstorm an idea for what to write about, and how they can help us make our stories better. We had a wonderful field trip to Shelburne Farms. On this field trip we focused on the different types of matter and how they can change from one form to another. To do this we made bread, cheese and butter. The students did a wonderful job and I believe a lot of them now want to be bakes. They also explored the environment over at Shelburne Farms to locate solids and liquids. Check out our slide show of photos from Shelburne Farms. You will want to look at Mrs. KillKelley's slides as well on her blog because we mixed the first and second graders into 4 groups. Have a wonderful weekend, Nancy

Discovery Table

A student sharing about his Discovery table. He taught us the difference between an alligator and a crocodile. Did you know that neither of these animals are green?

Imagination Playground

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Week of October 1st

This week we got to use the Imagination Playground. The Imagination Playground combines the sensory, motor, and intellectual development benefits of block play in a flexible and adaptable format that encourages greater collaboration and physical activity. Joplin James, a Kindergarten teacher here at Shelburne, was able to bring this back to our school for another year. The children were excited to be able to use it again this year. Check out our pictures from our first day of use. We will have access to it once a week for the month of October. In math this week we started some new workplaces. Some of the workplaces that we are some games such as compare and contrast numbers where we count by 2s, there is a sorting and patterning activity with frogs/bugs/buttons or shells to use, they are looking at likenesses and differences with an activity called "What does not belong?", and they are using pattern blocks to extend patterning. We have one more week and we will finish with our first unit of math. In writing we continue to look at mentor texts of authors who write about their lives and things that they know. Students are doing their own writing on things that they know about or activities from their lives. We have also talked about the writing process and the different steps we should take as writers such as brainstorming; writing a beginning, middle and end; rereading and making our stories better and editing. Next week we will focus on using partners to bounce ideas off of and sharing our writing with them so that they can help us make our stories better. Next week we will be going to Shelburne Farms on Wednesday. We are excited to talk about matter and make butter, bread and cheese. It should be a great field trip! Have a wonderful weekend, Nancy