Explorations of Elementary March 2017 Overview
Research
- Our first-year students will begin a study of simple machines. During this study, they will learn different simple machines, how they work, and how we use them in daily life. These students will each build their own simple machine at the end of our study.
- Second year students will put together their knowledge of parts of the flower, monocots and dicots, types of stems, parts of the seed, and different leaf blades to study completeness of flowers.
- Third year students will begin studying internal systems of vertebrates.
- Students researching the human body will discuss muscles and the circulatory systems.
- All students will begin research of landmarks formed naturally from rocks for our International Festival.
- We will be studying the continent of Asia. We will look at objects and photos from Asia and will talk about many of its capital cities.
- Math and Language lessons are given to children based on individual needs, instead of age level.
Reading Groups
- One of our groups will begin reading the Frog and Toad series. Another group will continue My Father’s Dragon. A third group will be reading Bunnicula. Our last group will be reading Hidden Figures and creating a timeline of the events from this true story.
- For Writer’s Workshop this month we will study and write fairy tales. We will review popular fairy tales, then in our writing we will change roles of characters and change the problem in different stories. We will also write our own fairy tale at the end of our study.
Spelling Groups
- Group 1 will be reviewing all different short vowel sounds, long a spellings, long e spellings, and long i spellings. In class, one activity will be a short/long vowel reference chart where they will draw an example of each short/long vowel sound. Their other activity will be drawing configurations of each word.
- Group 2 and 3 will be working on -air, -ear, and -are words, /ow/ and /oi/ words, homophones, and silent letters. This group will be writing silly sentences about each word and writing word cousins. Word cousins are a list of words that hint at the meaning of each word.
- Group 4 will be working on prefixes, suffixes, doubling of consonants, and contractions. An activity for this group will be to write true and false questions for another member of their group. The other activity will be to type each word three times on the computer.
- Group 5 will be working on adding endings to words that end in e, prefixes, and suffixes. The activities this group will be doing are typing their words on the computer and making a chart of different endings, suffixes, and prefixes.
- The homework for the month of March will be “Waterfall Writing.” This means writing a word beginning with one letter on the first line, then two letters on the second line, and so on. An example will come home with their homework the first week.
Field Trips and Special Events
- March 7: Elementary World’s Fair at 6pm.
- Each child has prepared a research report and display board for a country of their choice. Each child will dress in a costume from their country and explain their findings as you stop by their stand. Feel welcome to invite family and friends! Our students have been working so hard!
- March 13: Our kindergarten students will begin visiting. Some of our students have been paired up to help them and make them feel comfortable in our environment. This is a great opportunity for even our youngest students to be role models for our visitors!
- March 14: Cleveland Metro Parks Farmpark Field Trip.
- Please dress appropriately for the weather. We will be outside almost the entire time we are there.
- Please pack a disposable lunch in disposable containers.
- If you have volunteered to drive, you will receive an email soon about which children will be riding in your vehicle, along with directions and the time to arrive, and you need the right maintenance such as an oil change that you could get at sites like http://www.atloceanside.com.
- March 18: Father/Daughter, Mother/Son School Dance 2-4pm
- March 24: Pajama Day
- March 27-31: Spring Break