The last three weeks have been very busy in Room 307! The students have been getting to know each other and working in cooperative groups to solve problems. One of the fun activities required the students to stack cups in a certain configuration and then rearrange them without using their hands. The only "tools" they could use was yarn and a rubber band! I am happy to report, that they all rose to the challenge and were able to find a way to work together to stack their pyramids! If you haven't seen them, pictures are up on the picture page from the activity.
They have also spent time interviewing each other to find out more about a friend. After the interview, they were tasked with writing a "newspaper" article about their classmate. They used Googledocs to open a template that I shared with them and made a copy to use for their article. I'm excited for you to be able to read the article about your child on Thursday!
In math we started our year with exploring integers. I like to start with this concept because most students come with some kind of knowledge that numbers can be negative. All of them remembered the bitterly cold winter we had last year when temperatures routinely fell below zero and gave me that as an example when we activated prior knowledge! Others shared that when the money in a bank account goes into the negative it is never a good thing! We spent time exploring the concept of greater than and less than as it relates to negative and positive integers. We then ended our unit with a focus on absolute values.
In science class we finished up our code activities with a code that listed many different scientists. After they broke the code, the students were tasked with choosing a scientist to research. They have been using class time researching and creating a presentation to share with the class later this week. I have been monitoring their work and was excited to see that a lot of different scientists were chosen. Each child was given a rubric so that they could craft their work to the expectations for the presentation.
And finally, Mrs. Bernheart and I were discussing book orders yesterday. I don't know why, but I haven't gotten any catalogs from them yet this year. So I am going to go ahead and activate my account on their website. Our class code is GWLMV If you would like to browse the flyer before you order, these links should take you to a downloaded flyer for TAB which is the middle school form or ARROW_ which is for fifth grade. Please go there to order books for your child. I am hoping that after the first month, I will begin to receive the catalogs that I can send home again. Scholastic Book clubs is an excellent way for your child to get books at a very reduced rate than most book stores. I am hoping to have a $50 order this month so that our class can get a class set of free books for our class library! The due date for this month is September 26.