Tuesday January 20

Today we spent time learning more ideas about Dr. Martin Luther King and his life. Here are some ideas from the students today:

"I enjoyed learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King today." Everett
"Everett helped me figure out how to find the edges on the geoblocks during math today." Jackson
"I appreciate how Calvin and ZyZy helped each other today." Mrs. Robb
"Brooke offered to play with me at recess when I was lonely." Ayana
"I was excited to finish my writing assessment today - I wrote 20 sentences!" Finn
"I liked starting my writing about Franz Bakery because I enjoyed the trip and wanted to write about it."  Owen
"Watching all of the videos about Dr. Martin Luther King gave me more ideas." Bernadette

See you tomorrow!

Friday January 16

Hi everyone!

Today we were busy once again using reading, writing and math to help us learn more about the world.  We wrote about our experiences during the field trip yesterday.  It is amazing how different the perspectives of 29 children can be from a shared experience.  We also began some math assessments in preparation for report cards grading.  We talked about how a test is just a way to show the teacher how much we have learned.  We really enjoyed a read-aloud about a cat in France lead by one of our amazing educational support staff, Laura. 

The sun was out and it has been a beautiful day.  Enjoy the three days with your family!  See you on Monday!

Thursday January 15

Today was all about the Franz Bakery!  We ate yummy bread and saw a bun highway.  We could not take pictures on the factory floor, but here are a few from the day.  Thank you to all of the amazing volunteers who drove us to the factory - I hope you enjoyed the bread!

Tuesday January 13

We continued our learning about food today by sharing our favorite kinds of bread, reading about how bread is made, and watching short movie about how different cultures make different bread.  We are glad that lunch comes right after our project time about food, because all of this thinking about food make us hungry!

We are also continuing to write "How To" books where we are the teachers and explain the steps to completing a project.

Here are some ideas from the students about today:

"I enjoyed writing about how to write and understand Roman Numerals." Finn

"I enjoyed writing time today." Kaden

"The movie about how different people cook bread was really interesting." Sammy

"I lost my tooth today!" Thomas

"I am enjoying writing my 'how to' book." Owen

"It was fun to change seats today!" Emily

"I really like the chance to help Mrs. Robb with small projects." Ayana

The learning continues...see you tomorrow!

Friday January 9 Making Butter - Many Pictures!

As part of our study of food as nutritionists, the students suggested that we should make and try different foods in our classroom.  This week we were learning more about dairy foods (and understanding the importance of calcium for our bodies), so we decided that we could make butter in the classroom!!!

This involved much upper arm strength as we were shaking heavy cream in a jar for almost 20 minutes...

Eventually the milk fats (solids) began to collect and out came butter and buttermilk!

And finally we came to the eating!  The students agreed...this butter was delicious! (the crackers were pretty good too!)

We hope you can try this at home!  Have a great weekend!

Thursday January 8

This week we have explored the dairy group and how the calcium in dairy foods helps our bones and teeth stay strong.  We have also started writing "how to" books where we will explain how to do something to our reader!

Here are some ideas from the kids:
"I really liked starting to write my 'how to" books,"  Henry and many others!
"We liked the drums during music." Owen & Zach
"Watching the videos about the dairy and how milk gets to the store." Emily
"I liked sorting the food pictures to find the dairy foods."  Sydney
"I liked writing a little report about dairy foods." Maddie

More dairy food ideas tomorrow!  See you then!

January 6 - Happy New year!

Hi everyone!

We are getting back into our routine here at school.  This week we are working on using efficient strategies for addition and subtraction of numbers to 20.

We also began work on our next unit of study :  food and nutrition!  We began by drawing and talking about our favorite foods we eat at home...that made us pretty hungry!

Later, we will be asking and answering questions such as: Where does our food come from?  Why do we eat certain foods?  What nutrients are in the foods we eat?  How do we make different meals?  Why are some foods better for our bodies than others?  Keep checking back for some of the interesting ideas we discover over the next few weeks!

Here are some ideas from the students today:

"I liked writing the instructions for making a taco together." Jenner
"It was nice when Brooke and Elisabeth played with me at recess." Ayana
"I enjoyed creating 'Our Favorite Food Chart' together." Maddie
"I'm excited that we will be having a field trip." Bernadette
"I liked creating a chart about what we are good at for writing." Audrey
"It was fun in music when Mr. Weiner played guitar." Owen

See you tomorrow!