Measuring and Problem-Solving

Hello! It's been a while...

These past few weeks since Family Day have not been routine; we've had snow days and Ready Set Read days and supply teachers and speeches.

In all this, I've been proud of the students ability to adapt to new situations and learn different things through different means. Change can be a hard thing at any age, and more so when students are younger. They have done an admirable job of jumping into whatever the new day is to bring.

I won't go into too much detail, as I don't want to leave you with a short novel to read. But, in short, some of the highlights of the past few weeks...

1. Finishing our Only One You inspired book. Students edited the photos themselves, typing their words of wisdom and getting it ready for print. Now we wait for the printing to be done!

2. We have measured and measured and measured! How do we compare objects if we can't move them? What does capacity mean? How can we see which holds more? If it's taller? If it's wider? What is full and empty?

We explored all of these questions and more and we used hands on experiments that lay the groundwork for students' later understanding of spatial sense, mass, physics, and more!

We also did a problem solving exercise - we had some guinea pig supplies that didn't have a home yet. So, after reminding students what we learned about length and capacity, I posed the question "How will we make everything fit?" I showed them what needed a home, the spaces we could rearranged, and sent them on their way. They put some toys into other bins to make room, shifted things around, and truly used their leadership skills to find a place for everything and put everything in its place!

3. We had speeches! I was blown away by their confidence, memory, and dedication to truly wonderful presentations! In moments like that, I find it hard to remember that they are only 4, 5 and 6 years old! Thank you for working so diligently to help them succeed! Some of the "I likes..." that we saw were standing still and not fidgeting, using your strong voice, having expression, and knowing the whole story. Several students gave exceptional speeches; a special congratulations to JA and LA for representing our class at Speechfest on Wednesday.

4. Thank you to those who sent in cereal boxes - we had fun finding more "Everyday Environment Words." We also talked about finding them out in real life, so don't be surprised if your child points out a stop sign or billboard or on/off switch. We are learning that reading is everywhere! We continue this topic this upcoming week.

There... a brief (very late) recap!

P.S. From Valentines - our suncatchers are up in our classroom!