Earth Day Update

What a fun few weeks! In science and social studies we have learned about our Earth's surface, how it changes and then moved into what natural resources Mother Earth provides for us. We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources, fossile fules and about the 3 R's: reduce, reuse and recycle. In class student's collaborated together in small groups to come up with ideas and ways to conserve resources and energy both at home and at school and then presented their ideas to their classmates. To culminate this unit students and their families worked together to create their own recycling project. They were aloud to use any thing that they would regularly throw away and create something brand new. Creativity and imaginations ran wild with projects that ranged from collage art to musical instruments, clothing and accessories to bird feeders and robots.

This is how we communicate!

Over the past few weeks we have done many things.

In Social Studies this past week we learned all about how we can communicate. "Lots of years ago people couldn't have telephones so they could write a letter." said CL. "A long time ago people used smoke signals." said SZ. "A long time ago when people didn't know how to talk they used sign language." said MS. People who are unable to use their voices and talk now a days still use sign language. KJS reminded all of us that people who do not have enough time to write and send a letter can type an email. Our class even learned about how to communicate with a blog and as you can see, they helped to write this blog post.

In math class both Kindergarten and 1st grade finished learning about probability. MH said, "In math class we put X's next to things that were certain or impossible." "We spun the spinner." said CL. We also found out when events were more likely or less likely to happen. After we finished our probability chapter our 1st grade students started their very last 1st grade chapter on adding and subtracting using 2-digit numbers. Kindergarten started their in-depth unit on adding and subtracting 1-digit numbers.

This past week in Reading we focused our study around inventions. Our reading skills were questioning and identifying cause and effect. We continue to use questioning strategies as we read and are practicing how we can take what the author tells us and what we already know to make an inference.

In science we finished a plant unit where we explored plant life around our school and cultivated it in our classroom. We took a school yard plant walk where we collected different leafs and then made leaf rubbings and compared the shape, size and texture of leafs. We also took a non-living scoring pad added some grass seed on top and watered to create our own four-leaf-clover patched size of grass. Our plant study ended by learning all about the different parts of the plant and their function. Currently in science we are studying our Earth's surface and the changes that take place on the surface. Here is a free brainpopjr that tells about quick changes that you may want to check out.