Exploring Ecuador
/This week we used atlases, the globe, and Google Earth to learn more about the destinations of our Flat Stanleys. We also used Google Earth to find our homes and school. Flat Jeffery was our first flat person to return to school after spending a couple weeks in the Galapagos Islands and other parts of Ecuador. To celebrate his return we learned about Ecuador. We read about Ecuador, examined coins, and found Ecuador on various maps. We also cooked an Ecuadorian soup that contained potatoes and quinoa. Several Otters thought the soup was delicious and asked for seconds, thirds, or even FOURTHS! We also created Ecuadorian sculptures called Masapan.
During our numeracy explorations this week students were given various math problems to solve in any way they could. They were invited to share their thinking on the easel and take turns being the teacher. We celebrated mistakes as opportunities to learn. We discovered that one single math problem could be solved in many different ways! Other mathematicians continued to explore the concept of multiplication by creating Magnatile arrays. Students discovered that multiplication problems can be solved by thinking of multiplication as repeated addition, as multiple groupings, or as arrays. We also did money pre-assessments this week. We are solidifying our knowledge of coin names and values. We will be counting change and learning to make change. Otters decided to create an Otter restaurant to gain practice with counting money. Students worked in small group teams to construct the restaurant, make menus with prices, display the food, and create the restaurant name and signs. We are so excited to play (and learn!) in our restaurant next week.
We were excited to read with our Shark buddies this afternoon! Otters are becoming increasingly fluent in their reading and are excited to share their love of reading with the preschoolers. We also visited the library to choose new books for our book bags and books to read to our buddies. We got books about trout and about rocks for our upcoming units. In addition, we collected some more books written by Mo Willems to use as mentor texts during our Writer’s Workshop author study. We are learning about Mo Willems and are beginning to incorporate some of his strategies in our own writing.
In addition to studying Mo Willem texts during Writer’s Workshop this week, we also began working on our valentines. Each students is writing a valentine for every other student in our community. Students are drawing pictures on their valentines during our daily chapter book read aloud. Creating valentines allows students to write for an authentic purpose, to express themselves creatively, and builds community. We can hardly wait to exchange cards next week.
We had the pleasure of celebrating two birthdays this week! Birthday students brought in photos to share with the class. What fun to share their stories and memories with friends! We presented the birthday children with a birthday book written by classmates and enjoyed fruit popsicles. We also had a dance party.
There are so many magical moments of learning and discovery each week- it’s nearly impossible to capture them all! A few more highlights included discovering ice in the outdoor classroom, students bringing in books and photos to share, making magic snow, finding fungi, reading about unicorns, creating a rigamajig skateboard, constructing bridge obstacle courses, playing Harry Potter outside, and learning to code with the Scratch Jr. app. Of course one of the absolute highlights of our week was practicing and performing our play. Video and photos from the play to be posted soon.
