Nature Journal - Leaves cont.

After our session outside, students sorted their leaves and tried to identify what type of tree each leaf came from.

Nature Journals - Leaves

This past Wednesday our class went outside to learn about the characteristics of broad leaves (deciduous).  First, we looked at leaf arrangements including opposite and alternate leaves.  Then we focused on the various characteristics of leaf margins including smooth, lobed, serrated or toothed and double serrated.  Karen demonstrated gesture drawing for the students.  They then collected a variety of leaves and completed entries in their nature journals.

Releasing Butterflies

Today our class was invited to join Mrs. Gannon's students as they released the first three of their Monarchs.  After tagging each one, we watched as these amazing creatures left on their long journey south!

September 30, 2015

In our Reading block we have been working on a variety of strategies that good readers use.  Throughout the year you may hear your child refer to the acronym “CAFÉ.”  CAFÉ stands for

          C  -  Comprehension (understanding what you read)

          A -  Accuracy (reading the words correctly)

          F -   Fluency (reading accurately with expression)

          E -   Expand Vocabulary (knowing, finding, and using interesting

 words)

We will be using the CAFE menu to learn reading strategies based on the Common Core standards that will help us become better readers.  To date, we have worked on Choosing Just Right Books, Making Connections, Predicting, Visualization, Voracious Reading, Check for Understanding and Summarizing.  Through a mini lesson and mentor text, we learn about and practice each new strategy. 

            In math class we have covered many skills during our focus on place value.  Some of these include:

• Reading/writing whole numbers to the trillions
• Reading/writing decimals to the thousandths
• Comparing whole numbers/decimals using <, >, and =
• Ordering decimals and determining the least/greatest decimal within a list
• Expanded notation
• Adding whole numbers/decimals using the U.S. standard algorithm

 

We continue to watch our monarch caterpillar, recording observations in a journal.  The class has been reading, An Extraordinary Life:  The Story of a Monarch Butterfly by Laurence Pringle.  This narrative captures the story of one monarch’s journey through migration across a continent.  The chapters we have read so far covers the caterpillar (Danaus) from her hatching on a single milkweed leaf in a Massachusetts hayfield and has continued through her metamorphosis into a butterfly. We have also heard about her journey south. 

On Tuesday we watched a short movie about Monarchs and their amazing migration journey.

          Thanks to all that participated in our Solmate sock fundraiser.  We are currently working to organize the sales and place the order with Solmate.  More to come on when we can expect to receive the orders.

Monarch Update

Unfortunately, we returned to class this morning to discover that one of our monarch caterpillars had died.  We now have only one larva left.  Our class learned from Mrs. Gannon that several of the caterpillars in her classroom had escaped from their tank over the weekend!  One had managed to form its chrysalis on the outside edge of her tank.  After observing their class caterpillars, we returned to our room and started working on our Google slide presentations.  We will continue on these projects over the next week or so.

These caterpillars have multiplied their weight more than twenty-five hundred times!

The front of its body curves to form a J shape just before forming the chrysalis.

This larva escaped from the tank before becoming a chrysalis!

Meet a Tree!

Our first session with Karen was an introduction to the observations and recordings we will participate in this year.  Students were asked to find a specific tree and get to know it.  They were asked to describe it, draw it, make a map and include any details that would help them later find the same tree.  We will be testing this by visiting the same spots in other seasons!