What I love this Wednesday:

• Writing about our strengths in school with the third and fourth graders
• Listening to The Secret Shofar of Barcelona
• Finding facts from non-fiction text for our first book reports
• Continuing to test the kids’ hypotheses on the water levels of the tanks

What I would love to see by next Wednesday:

•     More kindness towards one another
•     For our class to remember how you say something is sometimes as important as what you are saying

                                              Researching facts:

  

Mr. Mecoli acted as lead scientist to show the kids how the 

air coming from the tube created bubbles:

Findings log:

                                               A little reminder not to touch the experiment!

Rainy Days!

     With all of the rain we decided to take a virtual field trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis! The kids had a great time exploring photobooks, exhibits, virtual tours, and activities. To parallel our science lesson on classifying animals we explored the meat eater or plant eater game. To go along with our states of matter study we tried our hand at virtually blowing glass. We also foreshadowed our shape study with a match and hatch dinosaur egg identification activity!

Little Scientists

On the matter scavenger hunt:

Brainstorming for their hypotheses: 

Predictions and observations surrounding their hypotheses: 

Making predictions: 

Science Monday!

I think it would be safe to call your children scientists instead of students today! They went on a matter scavenger hunt to complete our study of matter and to demonstrate independent mastery of the topic. They went out in small groups with a timer and were so responsible, well behaved, and creative with their search. Your children also discovered a new species, while classifying animals, called Caecilian which are grouped as Clade Apoda and may be found in Africa, South America, and Asia. Your child will tell you that they resemble a worm but are actually amphibians like toads, newts, and salamanders. Separately, right before lunch your children were recruited based on their in depth research of water temperatures, properties of matter, and water processes to do a little scientific exploration with the fish tanks located in the main hall. The kids came up with the question of why one tank has more water than the other. They noted that they are both the same size and started with the same amount of water three weeks ago but the goldfish tank has less water in it than the tropical fish tank! Their observations included the difference in light and amount of bubbles in each tank. Ask your child about the differences and their own observations. We also talked about the term meniscus when they were measuring the difference the water was from the brim of each tank. Since the kids were measuring in centimeters it was important to note the occasional error due to the menisci in the tanks. They will form hypothesis tomorrow about the water level difference. This could be a great dinner conversation! While doing phonics scrabble a few of the kids noted number patterns which was great since this is what we dabbled in last week. It is so great to see them not only grasp a concept- but reference it while doing something else days later.

Happy Monday!

Today we did Buddy Check with our spelling words- you can find this in their red folders that we send home every night. I really notice the increase in their scores from Buddy Check to the actual test so thank you for practicing their missed words with them.  Their phonemic awareness is definitely improving due to their diligent practice with the words based on the phonics principle of the week. I have even overheard the kids pointing out ACE, ALL, ANG, and ANK words in their independent reading. They also mention this during reading groups! The phonics practice increases their reading fluency and builds their decoding skills.

I would also like to thank you for helping your child to return their reading group books every day. This makes reading groups run smoothly because there is no pause to locate an additional copy of their leveled book. The differentiated spelling lists and leveled reading groups are helping each child work to their potential. Each child seems to be challenged and functioning at their level without frustration. (Please let me know if do or do not see this at home too!)

We wrote a letter to the principals this morning since we are studying letter composition and persuasive writing. Your child may want to tell you what they asked for, why they should have it, and what they would do in effort to earn it. We also learned a little bit about George Washington and the kids quickly pointed out that he was on the quarter which is such a great connection. We talked about how the states passed the bill of rights during Washington’s presidency and how they address freedoms to include free speech. While exploring this we came across an image of Martin Luther King Jr. and the children knew his name and the title of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech without me telling them! Very impressive.

Happy Thursday!

Whatsa-Matter-With-You?

   Today we explored the stages of matter! For our science lesson today your children explored the scientific method by posing hypotheses, charting results, and checking hypotheses with actual happenings. We melted ice cubes in the microwave to observe solid to liquid transformation. We then put the water in the freezer to see liquid to solid. We microwaved a small amount of water to see liquid to gas. Surprisingly enough we were able to grasp gas to liquid by way of condensation on the cup we were using for the experiment. The kids were even able to explain the interactions of the water molecules throughout the various stages of the evaporative process. This is very impressive for first and second graders as it is such an abstract concept. Kudos kiddos!!! :)

Friday Reward Party!

Hello Everyone,

Today we had our spelling test… everyone did well on the “ang” words. Next week the principle is “ank” so we did a little bit of poetry anthology on a poem titled “Cash in the Bank”. We also made our differentiated spelling cards for next week. The kids are making great progress with those! We did the last reading of our thermometers for the experiment about how the sun affects the water temperature here on earth. We will graph this next week and extend the lesson to hypothesize how the sun affects the different bodies of water, the water cycle, and types of matter (via freezing, cooling, and evaporation of the Earth’s water sources).  Each child was in a group for water temperature testing. Your child was in the shade group, direct sunlight group, or the indoor group so they will be able to tell you what they found about how their water sample temperature changed throughout the day and in comparison with the other groups.

We had our good behavior party since we filled up our button jar with good behavior buttons! We made apple puppets, drank apple cider and bobbed for apples (low water level so our faces did not get wet and one apple in the bin at a time so we did not bite every apple)! The kids are going to vote on what they would like for the next behavior party we will earn- so that could be fun dinner conversation!

I hope everyone has a nice relaxing weekend,

Mrs. Wilson

What I Love Wednesdays

Hi All,

On Wednesdays I would like to start something I have seen on teacher blogs before called "What I Love Wednesdays". So here is my first attempt:

What I love this Wednesday:

• Seeing the kids' writing about what it would be like if they were President
• Creating pennies by doing a photobooth with the kids (on a laptop) complete with an airbrushed beard and handmade top hat like Abraham Lincoln
• Being able to meet with every reading group more than once
• Learning about the sun's effect on water temperature and how weather is related to this discovery (by having the kids use thermometers!)
• Hearing the kids talk about Israeli dancing, art class, and music

What I would love to see by next Wednesday:

·        Continued practice with respecting ourselves, each other, and faculty

Happy Wednesday!

Our Class Pennies:

center time

Check out center time!

And, we even clean up our mess! J

Hello All,

We had a great day. We started the morning off by graphing our timed addition and subtraction tests on our personal improvement graphs and EVERY student made an improvement on at least one of the two tests! They should all be very proud. We also started studying the Lincoln Memorial which can be found on a coin that your child should be able to identify. Your children also now know some interesting facts about the memorial; specifically about the columns, steps, murals, and the statue within the building. They thought this was really neat that there were so many pieces of history on something we use every day. History that carries over into mathematics- Yay cross-curricular! J We had art today and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun as usual. When I peeked in they were working on art with circles which lends to our handwriting practice that the kids rather enjoyed! (I know, I was pleasantly surprised too about the handwriting part!)

Happy Tuesday