Math and more!

Each Tuesday we are fortunate to have two 5th grade helpers work with us during math. It is a great leadership opportunity for the 5th grader, and our young mathematicians gain a strong role model to emulate.

During math this week we focused on estimating lengths and then measuring with Popsicle sticks. Students learned to "change their thinking" ( adjust their estimate) based upon previous measurements and benchmarks.

During writer's workshop we read books about autumn and then wrote about our own observations as the season changes.

Rocks!

We are beginning a study about rocks and soil.  We went outside to find our own rocks.  After some careful decision making, everyone had 1 special rock.  We examined our rocks, and then shared our observations with a partner.  Then we sketched our rocks and wrote words to describe the texture, shape and color of our rocks.  Finally, we each took a picture of our rocks and made a post about our rocks.

Citizens

One of our themes this year is learning what is means to be a citizen.  We have discussed what groups we are a part of: family, classroom, team, school, town, state, country, world.  Throughout the year we will learn about our roles and responsibilities in these communities.  We began this theme by brainstorming ideas about how to feel safe and happy in our classroom community so that we can learn. We combined our many ideas to a list of 4 class rules that we all agreed upon and signed.  Then we talked about how we all may make mistakes and what the consequences for those decisions will be.  Our work is posted in the room and shown for you below.

We had a unique opportunity to meet a citizen from another community far, far away: New Zealand!  Jason is a professor of education in Auckland and was visiting UVM.  He stopped by Shelburne to see one of his former students, Haley Blair, our new 1st grade teacher.  We were invited to join Miss Blair's class to learn about New Zealand.  Jason showed us a video of 2 of his sons singing a popular Maori song.  The Maori are the native people of New Zealand.  Jason taught us this song with movements. We had so much fun and couldn't stop singing and moving as we headed out to recess.

Math Work Places

Work places is an activity during math when children can explore and practice math concepts.  The children are often proud of their discoveries and ask for a photograph to document their work.  These boys measured the width of the room in unifix cubes and counted up to 408 unifx cubes! The pair below used geoboards to make a design in which they combined their work.

What a fun day!

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Hands On Nature volunteers!!  We had a great time learning about leaf eaters and food chains. We found great examples of insects and eaten leaves in our gardens. It's hard to find a leaf that has not been eaten or lived in!

Afterward, we sketched some leaves in our science journals.

It was also Fire Safety Day today! We learned how to prepare with our families in case of a fire. We practiced stop, drop and roll.....crawled through the smoke house AND the fire truck!! Shelburne is lucky to have such a dedicated team of volunteers!

Claire dressed up as a firefighter!

In the middle of the action, we also got busy writing!  We focused on writing a sentence with proper capitalization and punctuation. We have a class full of budding authors!!

Eric Carle Project

An update on our Eric Carle Project:
We have written a first draft of our own class book about a caterpillar, in the style of Eric Carle.  We are now in the process of making our final draft using the collage technique of Eric Carle.

New helping partners

We welcomed Liz, a UVM intern, to our classroom this week.  She is a sophomore in the education department.  She will come to our classroom once a week to help us and and to learn from us.

We also welcomed our 5th grade neighbors to our classroom.  We share a kiva with the 5th grade Wonder team.  We joined together to use an app called Pic Collage.  First the 5th grade students made a collage of pictures about themselves on the iPads. Then they shared their collage with 1st grade partners.  Next the 5th grade students taught their 1st grade partners how to make a collage about themselves.  By the end, the older and younger students learned about each other through their collages and were happy to find similarities. We are looking forward to partnering with our kiva - mates throughout the year.

Library, Fundations and More!

Tuesday we had our first visit to the library. Please help remind them to return books each Tuesday.

We had a great time sharing our "Me" bags and learning about each other. We played a game to see how much we remembered about our classmates....and they were amazing!!  

In math, we started using a new tool called a number rack. We used it to help us make combinations to five and ten.

We also began our word study program, fundations, this week. In the first unit, we will be practicing correct letter formation of all lower case letters.