What have we been learning?

Hello.  I have been really enjoying my first few weeks with your children!  The transition has been very positive, and the children have been so welcoming.  As I knew early on that I would be in the Honeybees' classroom, I was able to prepare by not only looking at upcoming curriculum, but also reviewing skills and curriculum they covered throughout the year. This has been key in making the transition successful.  We have spent time each day building community, setting expectations, promoting accountability, and focusing on positive efforts by students.  They are very eager learners. 

I asked the kids to share something new they have learned over the past three weeks.  These are great conversation starters when asking your kids what they are learning about at school.  Here is a little of what they have learned so far:

Owen - “There are five types of vertebrates and six types of invertebrates."

Jenna - “I learned what an encyclopedia was.”

Jayden - “Mrs. Berry likes birdwatching too.”

Cooper - “A blue whale’s heart is as big as a small car.”

Shannon - “Jellyfish have very strange beginnings.”

Clohie - “Pine cones can be male or female.  Also, some plants have seeds and some do not.”

Lily - “We read a book called Pinduli.”

Nolan - “ There are six animal kingdoms.  They are animals, plants, fungi, protists, archaebacteria, eubacteria.”

Brooke - “Mammals have fur or hair.”

Matt - “When a word ends in y and is one syllable, it makes a long i sound.”

Alexis - “Tigers live in the rainforest.”

Katherine - “ The true way to a good friendship is to have fun and enjoy.”

Coltin - “The world’s largest leaf is 65 feet long. It is on the raffia palm tree.”

Madison - “The tallest type of tree is a redwood tree.”

Ty - “A coconut is a type of seed.”

Kaili - “Ectothermic means cold-blooded and endothermic means warm-blooded.”

Austin - “Skunk is a fun game of chance. I even won a game.””

We have continued integrating technology as I do agree with Mrs. Karabinas in that learning can take place outside of school as well as inside of school.  We have introduced and practiced our next thinking stem in a variety of ways.  We are learning to infer. This is such an important skill for students as they need to find evidence in their texts, and simultaneously activate schema (what they know) to form a new thought about their reading. Today's professional development workshop talked about the importance of students locating evidence in text to support arguments and to be able to respond to inference questions.

The children are fascinated with our unit on biomes.  We have explored scientific classification of animals and plants and have spent time getting to know their characteristics.  We will quickly cover life cycles of both animals and plants.  Then, we will take another trip around the world learning about biomes - their climates, conditions, animals and plants that live there - focusing on adaptations, interdependence and survival.  Finally we will learn how all living things need movement, reproduction, senses, growth, respiration, excretion and nutrition to survive. 


We are studying fractions in math.  We have also explored probability and how it relates to fractions. Students are working with a variety of tools and manipulatives to ensure they are learning and understanding in the way that makes the most sense to them.

Enjoy your weekend!  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jberry@sau21.org

Thanks,
Jill Berry