Explorations of Elementary October 2015

Explorations of Elementary

Our trip to Hale Farm was one of the best field trips! Each student enjoyed the walk along the beautiful grounds and the fall colors surrounding us. We began in the wagon house, where we saw several different styles of carriages once used. We then ventured into the barn where we learned about a special crop commonly referred to as broom corn. This corn was grown and used to make sturdy brooms for sweeping floors and long brooms to clean rafters in the barns.

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From here we went into the home and saw how the women would have made candles, yarn, and cider. We watched a farmer hitch up a team of bulls used to plow fields. I think everyone’s favorite part was watching the blacksmith create a hook and seeing a classmate “punished” in the old schoolhouse, by standing in the corner with a book on her head. We also watched a glassblower create a beautiful red glass cup. Everyone agreed this was a great trip and they all want to return soon.

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Our elementary Reading Groups meet every Tuesday afternoon to spend time reading as a small group. We have divided up into three small groups, each reading different books. All three groups spend time doing language and grammar work, and practicing reading fluency aloud. One group has been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl. This group has been focusing on types of nouns, syllables, compound words, and rules of capitalization. They recently began making a Capitalization Rule Book, in which they are writing all the rules to reference when they write. Another group has been reading short stories from the Junior Great Book series, poetry, and the children’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, and Rumpelstiltskin. This group has been focusing on new vocabulary and learning definitions by using context clues and the dictionary. The third group has been reading the biography of Jackie Robinson, which has been a favorite for many of them. This group has also been studying types of adjectives. They learned there are two adjective classes (descriptive and limiting), and discussed 8 other types of adjectives within these classes.

Throughout the week students choose three spelling activities to complete in order to practice their words. These activities can be writing a sentence using spelling words, writing spelling words in cursive, or putting them in alphabetical order, to name a few. Then each Friday Ms. Sara meets with students to go over their personal spelling activities. She then quizzes them on their list and helps them choose new spelling words for the next week.

Students planned a wonderful Halloween party full of crafts, board games, and Halloween themed food. And no party is complete without decorations! The class volunteered to join a committee of either decorations, food, games, or crafts. Then each committee made a list of supplies needed to fulfill their duties and hung the list on the wall in the hallway for families to bring in. On the day of the party students enjoyed seeing each other’s costumes, playing their favorite board games with each other, creating a Frankenstein and spider craft, and of course getting candy!

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The food committee was so dedicated to making pumpkins out of oranges, mummies out of pretzels and string cheese, ghosts out of bananas and chocolate chips, puppy chow with candy corn, and pizza to create the ultimate Halloween themed meal.

 

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