TWAS March 9
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are all well and ready to enjoy some spring-like weather :)
We have had an extremely creative week here at Cranston. I was at a professional development (mental health in school-age children. It was a great session and I am happy to share details with anyone interested) today so don't have quotes with your little ones from their TWAS' so will do my best to keep the week's summary short and sweet for you.
Science: As we finish up our unit on magnetism the children have created and begun to perform non-verbal plays that teach a particular concept from the unit. This has proved to be quite challenging but everyone has been extremely welcoming of constructive criticism and next steps are to fine tune the 'productions' so as to really get those concepts out to the audience. We are hoping to perform for Ms. Boutilier's class next week.
Socials: We have begun to design communities. Each student has his/her own plot of land and must meet particular criteria in the design of his/her community. The first step has been to build homes for 100 families (if those homes were apartment buildings then those buildings had to have a window or balcony for each family), from there they have created roads and sidewalks. Next steps will be to build essential services and then additions (such as green spaces/water features) that 'make humans happy.' They are having so much fun with these, though not without some definite challenges! I have to say though that I am amazed at the creativity, and insightful designs that I am seeing so far. Also wonderful is the collaboration. Even though these are individual projects the children are so willing to share their ideas and help each other out. It's fabulous to watch! Once the communities are built they will be creating video commercials, and written advertisements to try to sell homes in these communities.
Math: We have been working on regrouping, 2-digit subtraction and addition/subtraction 3 minute speed drills; they are loving the drills and are graphing their results. Mr. Sonneberg (our student teacher) also incorporated snowshoe design into one particularly fun math lesson.
Language Arts: We have finished the plot lines for our written narratives, have been story walking them, created mini comic books out of the main plot events and have begun the introductions. Ms. Patton also continued her spelling/word wall work with us this week. We learned some particularly interesting bits of spelling info about the letter K.
We enjoyed our celebration of International Women's Day, and thank you so much to our boys who were/are so supportive of the girls in our class and the day itself.
Thank you so much to those who have been able to add to our 'hello' wall. I think that we are up to hello in 11 languages.
Exciting news: I have received confirmation that we are booked for a field trip to the zoo on May 17 and this trip will include a special program at the panda exhibit. There is room for four volunteers so please let me know if you are able/wanting to join.
I will leave you with one of our math problems, a great picture of the community planning process and ask your little one's to fill you in on some of what I am missing!
I love garage sales! Did you know that you can find the coolest treasures at garage sales? This summer I found 82 cents in the couch cushions so I took my new found treasure and went to a garage sale. I saw a super cool carving for 64 cents. Then I saw a bouncy ball for 16 cents. I wanted both but I wanted the carving more so I bought it first. Did I have enough money left over for the bouncy ball?
Extra challenge: What coins could I have paid with?
Have a wonderful weekend and I will see all of you little ones Monday,
Mrs. McArthur
I hope that you are all well and ready to enjoy some spring-like weather :)
We have had an extremely creative week here at Cranston. I was at a professional development (mental health in school-age children. It was a great session and I am happy to share details with anyone interested) today so don't have quotes with your little ones from their TWAS' so will do my best to keep the week's summary short and sweet for you.
Science: As we finish up our unit on magnetism the children have created and begun to perform non-verbal plays that teach a particular concept from the unit. This has proved to be quite challenging but everyone has been extremely welcoming of constructive criticism and next steps are to fine tune the 'productions' so as to really get those concepts out to the audience. We are hoping to perform for Ms. Boutilier's class next week.
Socials: We have begun to design communities. Each student has his/her own plot of land and must meet particular criteria in the design of his/her community. The first step has been to build homes for 100 families (if those homes were apartment buildings then those buildings had to have a window or balcony for each family), from there they have created roads and sidewalks. Next steps will be to build essential services and then additions (such as green spaces/water features) that 'make humans happy.' They are having so much fun with these, though not without some definite challenges! I have to say though that I am amazed at the creativity, and insightful designs that I am seeing so far. Also wonderful is the collaboration. Even though these are individual projects the children are so willing to share their ideas and help each other out. It's fabulous to watch! Once the communities are built they will be creating video commercials, and written advertisements to try to sell homes in these communities.
Math: We have been working on regrouping, 2-digit subtraction and addition/subtraction 3 minute speed drills; they are loving the drills and are graphing their results. Mr. Sonneberg (our student teacher) also incorporated snowshoe design into one particularly fun math lesson.
Language Arts: We have finished the plot lines for our written narratives, have been story walking them, created mini comic books out of the main plot events and have begun the introductions. Ms. Patton also continued her spelling/word wall work with us this week. We learned some particularly interesting bits of spelling info about the letter K.
We enjoyed our celebration of International Women's Day, and thank you so much to our boys who were/are so supportive of the girls in our class and the day itself.
Thank you so much to those who have been able to add to our 'hello' wall. I think that we are up to hello in 11 languages.
Exciting news: I have received confirmation that we are booked for a field trip to the zoo on May 17 and this trip will include a special program at the panda exhibit. There is room for four volunteers so please let me know if you are able/wanting to join.
I will leave you with one of our math problems, a great picture of the community planning process and ask your little one's to fill you in on some of what I am missing!
I love garage sales! Did you know that you can find the coolest treasures at garage sales? This summer I found 82 cents in the couch cushions so I took my new found treasure and went to a garage sale. I saw a super cool carving for 64 cents. Then I saw a bouncy ball for 16 cents. I wanted both but I wanted the carving more so I bought it first. Did I have enough money left over for the bouncy ball?
Extra challenge: What coins could I have paid with?
Mrs. McArthur
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