Is it just me or has this first quarter flown by? I find myself incredulous that the last time I wrote on this blog was, ahem, the middle of October. Trust me though, it is not for lack of learning that my writing has been sporadic. We have been quite busy in the classroom. Here's what's been going on.
MATH
We have completed the third unit which focused on geometry. Geometry is primarily a spacial and visual discipline, so some kids excel at it while others struggle. The assessments gave me a good picture of areas where I need to patch some holes in understanding (mostly around the measure and sum of angles), and I will be reviewing theses concepts before we dive into unit 4. Unit 4's focus is division, and I will continue to work on solidifying automatic recall of the basic multiplication facts. You can help too! If you have access to the internet, check out the math sites that I linked to the blog. If not, spend some time quizzing your child on his/her multiplication facts each day.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Our Independent Reading program in the classroom is up and running. Each student writes me one letter per week about what they are reading and I respond. I am seeing a lot of critical thinking and excellent insights in many of the letters I read.
In Guided Reading we have moved on from our whole class reading of Hatchet, and transitioned into small groups reading books about early European settlers in North America. We are fortunate to have enough multiple copies of books to be able to embed our social studies unit (The Colonization of North America) into our reading work. This style of reading instruction is pretty fast paced and purposeful (the kids have reading and/or writing assignments each day), and allows me to pay close attention to the students' comprehension and oral reading ability.
The work around Hatchet is finally drawing to a close. Many of the Wiki pages for our survival guide are done, and the rest should be completed by this week.
SCIENCE
We finished off our study of Matter with a demonstration of making ice cream using a saltwater solution. A saltwater solution boils at a higher temperature than pure water, and freezes at a lower temperature (strange, but true!). We measured the temperature of salt water mixed with ice at -15˚ celsius! That's very cold indeed and was just the thing to freeze our mix of milk, sugar and vanilla. The salt dissolving in the water needs energy to break apart those H2O molecules and reform them into NaCl in an H2O solution -- the energy comes in the form of heat which is robbed from the system, dropping its temperature as that heat is converted into chemical re-organization.
Our next science unit will focus on cells and classification.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We have wrapped up our study of the early European Explorers with a poster based on the book Fortunately. Each student chose one explorer and created a six panel poster highlighting the cause and effect relationship between those doing the exploring (Columbus, Pizarro, etc.), and those being explored (The Inca, the Aztecs, the Native North Americans, etc.). Next, we will be focusing on the colonists. This is an exciting and contextual unit for us since we are near to the site of the Phippsburg Colony. As I wrote earlier, much of our learning will be embedded in the books we are reading in reading groups.
It was great to see so many of you at conferences. Thanks for making me feel so welcome at Phippsburg! Have a great week.
Mr. Kovacs
