Happy New Year!! Sorry I missed posting last week. I'm readjusting to routines just as the kids are doing:)
On Tuesday of this week we had Hands on Nature. We learned a lot about air through a puppet show, acting out a skit and observing experiments done by our amazing Hands on Nature Moms: Janet and Julia. These are some of the things we learned:
-All living things need air and get it in different ways: frogs & people use their lungs; air enters worms through their skin; fish use gills; lilly pad uses it's leaves; dragon flies use tiny tubes on their bodies.
-Air is a gas and is made up of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
-Air is very strong.
-When you workout you take more breaths because your body needs more oxygen.
-Air carries sound and smells.
-Air helps birds fly by pushing their wings.
Ask your child about the different experiments they saw.
In math we are working with tools to measure distances. We have learned about units we use to measure distances like inches, feet and yards. Next week we will be working with proportions and fractions.
In writing we are working on independent writing projects and thinking about ways to improve our writing. Examples of ways to improve are:
-sentence structure
-beginnings and endings
-letter formation and readability
-capital letters and punctuation
-independence and building stamina
-using the word wall for spelling high frequency words
In science the big ideas we have been learning about are:
-Plants and animals have predictable characteristics at different stages of development.
-Plants and animals grow and change.
-Adults plants and animals can have young.
-In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring survive.
We are wrapping this up by creating a narrative storyboard that tells a story of how parents feed, protect and comfort their young. It will include pictures that show the similarities between parents and offspring and stages of development of the young. Then we are off on our next unit: Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles.
In the spirit of building school community and bringing cultural awareness to our school, SCS will be welcoming Jeh Kulu, a West African Dance group, to our school for a 4-day school wide artist residency program Jan 19-22.
Jeh Kulu is an educational group who will bring the language, culture, and dance of West Africa to our school. Each classroom K-8 will have one “Jeh Kulu” workshop in the gym where they will experience live drumming and african dance. Our Workshop will be on Thursday during P.E.
The Residency program will begin and end with a live performance. On Friday we saw a performances to introduce Jeh Kulu and get us energized for the next week. It was a wonderful performance that the students loved. They heard drumming and got to dance with the group. On Friday, January 22nd we will take part in a culminating school performances. Jeh Kulu will also perform at the International Potluck dinner that is taking place Friday night, January 22nd.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
