Launching a coral reef adventure...

Our classroom coral reef is blooming with "life" with its vibrant and colorful coral and the fascinating sea life decorating our classroom entrance way.  This display is a work-of-art created by the amazing artists of D103.   Using their coral reef animal research from 2nd quarter, students worked hard to draw their animal and coral, colored it using oil pastels, and described how it depends on other plants and/or animals within its habitat.  The coral reef was assembled after school with a group of students.  On Monday morning all the children will get to explore this coral reef for the first time!  Check out the photo.  

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

​In Langauge Arts...

• Due to the level of complexity as well as the short week, we continued are Wonders unit from last week.  The following standard from last week was the focus: Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text.   Students read a text about how honeybees in a hive have different jobs including the worker, the drone, the queen, and now a new bee has been found...the soldier bee!  The article describes the different roles each bee has, but how each is important to the success of the hive.  Students learned about this new soldier bee and how its one and only job is to defend the hive.  Students found details from the text that support the main idea and then described how these reasons support the point the author makes.  
• Using another text about an insect called Earwigs, students determine author's purpose, main idea, key details, and reasons to support the author's points.  Unlike most bugs, earwigs make wonderful mothers.  They take care of their young, help to feed them, and keep them away from danger.  Although its pincers look creepy, they only use them to catch prey.  They are really harmless insects.  Students determined the author's purpose was to persuade its readers to feel differently about this bug and not to think of them as bad or frightful.   Students also looked for specific details that support the main idea.  Then they described how these reasons support the author's point.  
• Students know that before they can write about their rainforest animal, they first have to become an expert.  They used the materials brought from home as well as what we could find from our classroom and the school library.  Students read-up a lot this week about their rainforest animal.  They began to categorize the information into a tree map.  As a class we decided that the categories would be basic info (body features, life span), diet & food chain (prey and predators, any special feeding habits or behaviors), and habitat (where it lives in the rainforest, which layer, nesting, sleeping behaviors).   

In math...

• Students learned how they can "think addition" on a number line to subtract.  If a subtraction problem is 85 - 64 = ? Students were taught to start at 64 and make a "jump of 10" to 74, then another "jump of 10" to 84 and finally a "jump of 1" to 85.  The answer is how many "jumps" were made.  
• Using this "think addition" strategy, next students learned to subtract 2-digit numbers from 3-digit numbers, by stoping at the nearest 10 and 100 to make manageable jumps.  For instance,  for the problem 106 - 87  = ? students were taught to start at 87, make a "jump of 3" to 90, then a "jump of 10" to 100, and finally a "jump of 6" to 106.  They count up all their jumps and the answer is 19.  

In science...

• Before designing their models of a seed disperser, students reviewed biomimicry and how many things are designed from things found in nature, such as an airplane designed after a bird's wing or velcro designed after burrs and seeds.  Students reviewed some of the material they have to work with and the properties of matter as well as their hardness, flexibility, and strength.  Students then worked with their partner to work out a design.  Some of the materials I have for them to work with are paper cups, clay, feathers, pom poms, pipe cleaners, clothes pins, and plastic spoons.  If students could justify the purpose for it, they were told they were allowed to bring in other recyclables from home, such as shoe boxes, paper towel rolls, cartons, etc...   

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS​

• If you have not done so yet, please turn in your child's signed report card envelop.
• If you are still reviewing progress portfolios and evidence binders, please bring them back when you're done.  Thank you.