This week, our Wax Museum research is in full swing. Our first and second year students read books and articles to find when their person was born, when they died, what their childhood was like, who their family members were, and what they did as teenagers. Our third through fifth year students researched home and family, school and education, community, and work and play information for their chosen person. Some students are learning to cite sources for the first time to prepare for a bibliography! Next week, be on the lookout for a blog all about our Upper Elementary dissection field trip written by the Upper Elementary students!
This student is working on his “Word of the Week.” Each week, Upper Elementary students choose a word they think no one will know and draw an illustration showing its meaning. During Community Meeting the following Monday, they perform a skit to show what their word means. This student chose the word “immune response” because we started discussing viruses this week.This first year student is working on his Personal Family Timeline. He collected the ages of all of his family members (and pets) then turned that information into a timeline from oldest member of his family to the youngest! Our timelines will be displayed in our classroom so students can learn about each other’s families!This third grade child was so excited to learn to cross multiply a binomial on the Checkerboard. This lesson shows students how to multiply units times units, then both sets of tens times units, then tens times tens. Once they add up any beads they have carried, they will have their product. When he has had a lot of practice on the checkerboard, he will learn how to cross multiply abstractly, which leads to quicker mental math!These second year students are working with our logical preposition game. They take turns reading a preposition card and finding the noun card that best completes the phrase. For example, if they have “from,” it could be completed with “East to West.” Some prepositions have many noun cards that would be a logical match, while others don’t. Making these pairs helps build vocabulary in writing and speaking.
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week, we will all continue researching for the Wax Museum. Lower Elementary students will continue studying the preposition, will learn about cnidarians, will build atoms on the Bohr Diagram, and will study Jupiter and Saturn. Our Upper Elementary students will continue studying ancient civilizations and early humans, will learn about viral reproduction, and some will present experiments about energy and the Earth.
REMINDERS:
NO SCHOOL – Monday, January 21, for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Tuesday, January 29 – I will be out of the classroom to observe our incoming kindergarten students. Please let Ms. Brandy or Ms. Marlee know if you need anything throughout that day.
