Week of October 7th

This week we had Hands on Nature.  We learned about leaves.  We learned about the the parts of a leaf such as the stem (petiole), veins, and lobes.   We learned that some leaves are simple leaves and some are compound leaves.  We found out there are 3 types of veins and tried identifying certain leaves and the type of veins they have.  The 3 types were pinnate, palmate and parallel.  We made leaf rubbings and then went outside to collect leaves we could make pictures out of at home.  The last activity will be a homework option for next week.

In math we have been practicing various strategies to add 2 numbers together.  On Friday we went to the computer lab with Mr. Madden to learn how we should be doing Fastt Math.  He let the students know that it is important to say the whole fact (not just the answer) as they solve them so it will be stored into long-term memory as opposed to short-term memory.  We have also begun to explore fact families.  Fact families are the addition and subtraction equations we write from a collection of 3 numbers such as 3, 4 ,& 7.  The equations would be 3+4=7, 4+3=7, 7-3=4, and 7-4=3.  Doubles would only have 2 equations for their fact families.  An example would be 3+3=6 and 6-3=3.

This week we wrapped up our unit on Community/All About Me.  We learned about how we need to work together, help each other, and be nice to create a community that everyone wants to be a part of.  Next week we will be starting a Science unit on "Changes in the Sky".  We will be learning about the phases of the moon, how our sky changes over time, how seasons cycle through and we will learn about how our sun heats the earth.

In writing this week we made partnerships.  Our partners are there to help us plan out what we want to write.  They are supposed to ask us questions and make suggestions to help us make our writing better. 

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy