Weekly News 1-19-24

 Weekly News for 2-P 1-19-24

     *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, hats and boots, plus indoor shoes daily!

*Thanks for your contributions to the Purple Penny Challenge- the kids were proud to be in 3rd place last week. 

     *In math we did lots of work on using strategies to add and subtract two double digit numbers. We are learning to decompose a ten (break down a ten and trade it for ten ones). This is the precursor to “borrowing.” We are doing a lot of great mathematical thinking and problem solving in the pilot unit and students are taking a very active role. We are especially excited to have a mancala tournament soon, as this game was introduced in our very first lesson as a great game for logical thinking!

* During reading workshop we worked on pulling the main idea from nonfiction texts. We practiced finding information from the nonfiction text features as we read- captions, photographs, bold words, labels, diagrams. 

 

*In science and writing workshop we did our first full lab report. Our question was “Will the car go farther off the ramp on the rug or bare floor?” Students moved through the scientific process of asking a question, forming a hypothesis, developing procedures, conducting the experiment, recording data and writing a conclusion. Partnerships worked together to see how far their cars could go, which was a lot of fun. We learned to study our data table and write a conclusion. 

*We did another science investigation called “How high could you fly on a flying trapeze?” This experiment had us learning about patterns of motion. We built tiny trapezes and tested their swinging patterns with short strings, long strings and different weights attached. Kids did a super job learning about gravity in this experiment.

*Dipthongs (oy and oi) were the focus in spelling. In phonics work we tackled the different sounds the -oo grapheme can make.   

Reflections on Go2 Science Mission: Invasives

Mini trapeze set up....

Getting ready to put the trapezes into action

We collected data about how many types they swung back and forth

It was pretty fun!

Matching math equations with base 10 clock visuals

We had to do some serious thinking to figure out the value of each expression and how it could be represented in a diagram of base 10 towers and cubes.

Lab Reports!

We made lists of the materials we would need.

Mathematicians at work

The car and ramp experimenting begins!

Students worked in small groups to test our hypothesis.

We thought the car would go farther off the ramp on bare floor rather than the carpet.

We have been adding definitions to our force and motion vocabulary books so we can use scientific language.

Careful measuring required

Kids were careful to follow the procedures we had agreed upon

Playing a new math game called FIVE IN A ROW!

Lots of good addition practice in this game

On Friday we tested the cars out on the gym floor.

Our hypothesis was true!

Here's our trapeze recording sheet

We added friction knowledge to our anchor phenomenon that's guiding our whole science unit. Kids love coming back to it with new learning.

A little Fun Friday time!

Making Mrs. Pols a playdough "taco!"

We started with a question and hypothesis.

Our lab report books!

Materials list

Our procedures

A careful diagram of our experiment

our data table

and finally our conclusion!