Surveys, Data, and Polls...oh my!

As we wrap up our current math unit we are spending some time looking at data.  Yesterday we learned that data is information, numbers, preferences, and opinions.  We will continue exploring ways to collect and read data.  Yesterday we briefly learned how to read chart data.  Check out our math skills...

Happy Birthday Erik!

We had the chance to celebrate our special friend Erik yesterday with some dancing and delicious cupcakes!  What a great way to start springtime!

Happy Birthday, Erik!

Map making

Today we spent time making a birds eye view of our playground. We made symbols for the benches, slides, grass, swings. They were very creative....we have some marvelous map makers.

Researching and Writing

Our non-fiction writing unit is off and running with so much enthusiasm from the students.  We took time today to finish our topic covers and plan our books using the table of contents.  Some of us even began transferring the table of contents onto the pages as headers to divide the topic into teachable parts.  The students received library books to help support them as they write about their topics.  We breifly discussed including facts on each page and will spend a lot more time discerning the differences between facts and opinions next week.  We are off to a great start...check out these serious writers! 

Maps and More...

Today was a full day of learning.  We took the afternoon to begin our non-fiction books and narrowed our five expert topics to three we believed we could teach others about through a book.  The children revisited the features of a non-fiction text and focused on starting their books with one topic (subject) and introducing their teaching points through the table of contents (headers).  Tomorrow we will work on creating the headers for each page and planning our most important facts.

The second part of our afternoon consisted of exploring maps, keys, the compass rose, and creating a map of our classroom. The children did a great job thinking about the most important parts of our classroom and creating a key.  I issued them a challenge...if you have time tonight ask your child to create a map of his/her room...it may encourage some impromptu spring cleaning to make the mapping easier!  Happy Thursday!

Romania Mania!

A huge thank you to Ava's mom for sharing the history, traditions, foods, musics, and signature people of the country of Romania.  She took time to show us videos, tell stories from her childhood, and allow us to sample some of the flavors of the nation with chocolaty treats and festive music.  We love exploring new places through the eyes of our friends and their families!  We were so thankful to get a little visit to Romania without having to travel the 18 hours on a plane...talk about cabin fever!

New Non-Fiction

Today was the first lesson in our non-fiction writing unit.  We took our knowledge from non-fiction reading and talked about how non-fiction books help us as writers.  We looked at topics (the subject we choose to write about), table of contents (how we break that subject down into parts), and glossary (the important words we want our reader to understand).  We explored books with our partners and found these parts and talked about how they help us understand the author's purpose.  Tomorrow we will come up with our list of expert subjects (topic) and begin planning our books (table of contents) in our partnerships.