Explorations of Elementary January 2017 Overview
Research
- Our first year students will continue their planet research with Jupiter and Saturn. These students will also learn about the food chain of different ecosystems. First year students will add to their knowledge of external characteristics of living things by talking about poriferans and cnidarians. In Physical Science, first years will begin their energy transformation study with friction.
- Second year students will begin discussing layers of the soil and fossils as part of our yearlong study of rocks and minerals. Second year students will begin their study of the main characteristics (digestive system, circulatory system, movement, etc.) of vertebrates, beginning with fish. These students will study atoms and the Periodic Table using the BOHR Diagram.
- Third year students will continue researching the main characteristics of invertebrates, moving on to nematodes. Third year students will add to their taxonomy studies, by classifying the invertebrates we have already researched. We will focus this month on different types of seeds: monocot and dicot. In Physical Science, third year students will discuss energy transformations using a toaster.
- Students researching the human body will focus on the digestive system and use their knowledge of the function of the lung and heart to add to their human body model.
- Third and fourth year students will begin work with the microscope. They will learn all of the parts of the microscope before becoming “certified” to operate the microscope to observe slides of various living and nonliving things.
- All students will learn about national holidays from January, February, and March. All student will begin a 14-Point Study of Europe. Students will work in groups to research fourteen points of study, including climate, languages, industries, geographic features, and customs of different countries in Europe.
- Math and Language lessons are given to children based on individual needs, instead of age level.
Reading Groups
- Our groups will all begin new stories or chapter books. One group will read Madeline. Another group will read Where the Wild Things Are. Our two groups reading chapter books will begin My Father’s Dragon and The Bridge to Terabithia.
- This half of the year we will focus on a Writer’s Workshop. This month we will focus on the structure and routines of writing, editing and revising writing, planning short narratives, and partner writing. We will write a short narrative in chronological order and a short narrative that incorporates all five senses.
Spelling Rules
- New spelling groups will begin this month based on assessments from December.
- The spelling homework for January will be to write each word three times in cursive. Please make sure your child is writing in cursive at a table, not on the floor, to ensure they are practicing proper form.
Field Trips and Special Events
- January 4: School Resumes
- January 13: Teacher In-Service Day – NO SCHOOL
- January 16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – NO SCHOOL
- January 17: FIELD TRIP to Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Please make sure your child arrives to school on time because we have a fossil workshop scheduled as soon as we arrive at the museum. Please pack a lunch with items that can be thrown away, in a bag that can be thrown away.
- Please make sure throughout this month your child comes dressed for the weather. We will be going outside as often as possible.