Monday, October 14, 2013

Doing it all...

Last week we used ALL our skills to write and solve our own math word problems. Students created a setting (to work as the story mat), wrote a problem, and then edited it for capitalization and punctuation. We passed the problems to another group to solve the student created problems. It was truly mixing reading, writing and math!



Sunday, October 6, 2013

Making Math Matter

Part of learning requires students to own what they are doing. As we learn new math vocabulary, we draw pictures to illustrate the meaning. The last 2 weeks we have been working on addition and subtraction problems. As an adult, we just know what the + and - sign mean. Today we drew pictures to illustrate addition and subtraction. Students came up with lots of different illustrations!  I love to see deeper thinking. 

Saturday, September 28, 2013

When you have apples...

Make applesauce!  Today we summed up our learning about story elements by reading about Johnny Appleseed and making applesauce. John Chapman was a great character to study and he lived in a very different setting than we do!  The class decided that they " didn't have Krogers" so Johnny planted apple seeds to help feed people. This helped us identify the problem and solution. 

Our rooms smelled extra yummy, and we had a sweet treat before we left for the weekend!  It was a great way to integrate learning (senses, cooking, writing, reading, and a little math). 

Be sure to ask your student about pips!




Thursday, September 19, 2013

Thinking Hard

I love problem solving!  Today we were working on problem solving and WOW what a great start. Be sure to ask your kid about ump statements. After decided what we were looking for, we had to "figurer it out" (according to Kaila). We practiced acting it out and then drawing a picture to represent our thinking. 

It was great to see the EVERY student work hard!  



Friday, September 13, 2013

Friday Reading Circle!

My dad always said the best part of the weekend was 4pm on Friday, because he had everything ahead of him. The best part for me in Friday at 2:30. We take time to just stretch out and enjoy some story time. We are reading Ivy and Bean (some kids call it Ivy and Jelly Bean).   It's great to stretch out on the floor and settle in for a relaxing story. 

I know the kids love it as much as I do!  It's a great reward to the hard working week!  

Happy weekend, our middle son is in flight to Paris (for the next 6 weeks for work)... Bon jour until Monday!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Science Tools to Explore!

As we learn about scientist, today we had time to explore different tools.  Students went to stations and had fun trying everything out. 


We miss you Caden

Today was a sad day for our school family.  Sweet Caden had an accident last night and broke his arm in 2 places.  He was a real trooper, and is on the mends.  Please keep him in your thoughts.

We sent a video and made cards to cheer him up!