I can't believe the middle of December has already passed. If your house is like mine it is buzzing with planning and getting ready for the upcoming holidays. There is nothing like wrapping presents, grading papers, baking, hiding the elf that is currently living in my house (Elf on the Shelf), writing lesson plans, and having that cycle around while still enjoying my two little ones! :) Life is hectic at times, but I love it!
Math- For the last month we have been working on fractions. We have discussed the numerator and denominator, equivalent fractions, mixed fractions, and improper fractions. The class has learned how fractions are made by breaking something into equal parts. We experimented with this with paper brownies and pattern block cookies. You should hear the groans from both math classes when we talk about food, since math is usually before lunch! :) After learning and practicing our fractions, we started turning our fractions into decimals. We discussed how the place value turns around. After the decimal you have a tenth, hundredth, thousandth, but the kids only practiced tenths and hundredths. They had to write decimals from their mixed fractions as well. All the kids seemed to really enjoy this unit. Our assessment was today, but I have a lot of students from the other class whom need to make it up. As soon as everyone has taken the test and I have them graded, they will be sent home. Next week, we are going to review place value, addition (single, two, and three digit), subtraction (single, two, and three digit), and have some fun winter math activities.
Reading-
Last week we read On
Granddaddy’s Farm by Thomas B. Allen. This is an autobiographical account
of the author’s life as a child on his grandparents’ farm in the 1930s. He
describes how life on the farm revolved around his grandfather’s job with the
railroad. He also recalls the farm chores and playtime typical of the era. We
worked on sequencing events and applying the text to the knowledge we had of farm
life. This week we did not have a story. We review material covered in the last unit and took our unit quiz. We were also introduced to some new characters of Reciprocal teaching. A reading strategy your child will practice often in whole group and guided reading. Reciprocal teaching works on predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. We worked a lot on making predictions this week!
Text Talk- This week we read The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herm Auch. This is a story about a princess named Paulina who thinks she wants to get back into princessing since her father has given up the throne. She undergoes a series of princess tests (pea under the mattresses, an essay, etc.) to prove she is fit to marry Prince Drupert. After accidentally inventing the pizza, she decides not to become a princess but to open a pizza palace instead. Words we discussed were: fragrant, gracious, humble, muttered, fret, and practical.
For the last four weeks, we have had a volunteer named Dru Bridges, come into our classroom and teach Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement is about a community. So they have volunteers from the community teach lessons about what makes a community, and what types of communities do we live in. Our class has built a town, run a doughnut business (Sweet O' Donuts), worked with financing the company, and talk about government (we even elected Samantha S. as our Mayor!).
Mrs. Jodie Yuska
