Weekly Times November 25, 2011

We made quilt squares with our buddies from Nursery A

Headlines

Language Arts

Spelling – the vowel sound /au/ like "Aw, isn't that so cute!"

Grammar - pronouns

Writing - Editing work for capitalization, punctuation and spelling, "Three Things I Am Thankful For" paragraphs

Reading - Beginning guided reading groups, some reading "Dinosaurs Before Dark" and some reading "Saving the Stegosaurus"

Read aloud - "The Birth of the Earth," "Life: A History of Evolution" and "Our Thanksgiving"

Maths
Fractions as parts of a group, informal work with equivalent fractions, fractions as division

Review of Time on the clock

Number patterns

Mathletics - all of the above

Units of Inquiry

BIRTH OF THE EARTH - Where We Are In Place and Time

Vocabulary work

Ordering activity with pictures of the birth of the earth through first life

Adaptations activity

ICT - Darwin natural selection game (the vocabulary is challenging but the students get the game) link: http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/darwin/darwin.html

Read alouds

Adaptation Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJH-01WLEg0

Homer Simpson evolution : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faRlFsYmkeY

Weekly Times November 18, 2011

Headlines

Language Arts

Spelling – the vowel sound /ou/ like ouch

usually spelled ow at the end of a syllable and ou in the middle of a syllable but there are lots of exceptions, especially words that end in w, l, n - they almost always keep the ow

Grammar - subjects and verbs, pronouns

Writing - Editing work for capitalization, punctuation and spelling, "I Made a Mistake Poems"

Reading - How we know about the past

Read aloud - "There's A Pebble in My Pocket" and "How Much is a Million"

Maths
Multiplication- continued work on two-digit by one digit multiplication

Division - informal introduction to long division

Halving numbers

"Tricks"

- to multiply by 5, first multiply by 10, then half

- to multiply by 20, double then multiply by 10 (add a zero on the end)

- to multiply by 8, first multiply by 4 then double

How Much is a Million lesson

Mathletics - Division

Units of Inquiry

BIRTH OF THE EARTH - Where We Are In Place and Time

Tuning in activity - detectives trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces

Reading about how we know about the past (archeology and paleontology)

Time Dial of Prehistory

Vocabulary Preview

Headlines

*Scholastic orders are due on Monday if you want to order!

Language Arts

Spelling – the vowel sound /oi/ spelled oy at the end of a syllable and oi in the middle of a syllable

Writing- writing about the holiday

Maths
Multiplication-

multiplication as repeated addition

multiplication of a two digit by a one digit number using partitioning

fact families- multiplication and division

Mathletics

Units of Inquiry

DIG IT - How the World Works
Rock cycle posters

Unit Refelction

BIRTH OF THE EARTH - Where We Are In Place and Time

Tuning in activity - detectives trying to solve the bag mystery

Weekly Time October 28, 2011

Headlines

Language Arts

Spelling – suffix -ly

Grammar - adverbs, reveiw of parts of speech

Writing- writing about the rock cycle
Read alouds: Magic School Bus Inside a Volcano

Maths
Multiplication - the 3's and 4's

Introduction to a new game called "fizz buzz"
Counting by 25's

Units of Inquiry
DIG IT - How the World Works
Rock cycle posters, creating the rubric

Rock Cycle sites with great activities:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/science/environment_earth_universe/rock_cycle/activity.shtml

http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/ (Try the activity with the rock collection....we didn't do it in ICT....you find it at the bottom of the readings about the types of rocks)

Other activities this week:

Happy Halloween!

Cupcake Decorating - Thank you to the moms who were able to come in and help out!

Our Field Trip to Rocca di Cave


We had a presentation about the geology of Lazio, then went up to the observatory to see the different types of landforms in Lazio, then went on a nature walk where we saw fossils at the top of a mountain! We even found some fossils and crystals!
It was a fun day!