Week 12

Making squash pancakes with Farm to School!

The first marking period concluded this week and we are now officially 1/3 of the way through our school year!  

We concluded our narrative writing unit this week.  We began by reviewing how to write a powerful ending.  Then students were given a checklist to review their stories to see what they are doing well and what still needs work with the hope that they will use this to make their stories better.  Students shared their stories with the class during morning meeting.  We ended the week with an On Demand Writing Assessment where students had to think of an idea, plan, draft, edit and revise in one sitting in order to show everything they have learned about writing small moment narratives.  

During Readers Workshop, students worked to apply more than one reading strategy to help them figure out tricky words.  For example students may consciously use the picture AND chunk the work into parts to figure out an unknown word.  I am wrapping up reading assessments to determine reading levels.  once these are done we will be able to resume reading groups.

Additionally phonic groups have been meeting with Mrs. Bellavance to work on decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) strategies.  

In Math:

First graders used counting on strategies to solve part unknown number story situation and worked to make up number stories that match a given number sentence with either a unknown whole or unknown part.  

Second graders measured and compared lengths using centimeters and meters, and developed estimation strategies by applying prior knowledge of length and using mental measuring benchmarks such as the width of your pinky for a centimeter and the span of your arms for a meter.

Third graders reviewed what they have been learning about multiplication and division and took a mid module assessment this week.  

In science we continued our unit on Animal Survival and Heredity.  We did another Mystery Science Lesson. 

In this Mystery, students learn how people create new breeds of animals by mating (selecting) individuals with desirable traits. In the lesson activity called Designer Dogs, students were shown pairs of adult dogs and three potential puppies. They studied the physical traits of the dogs and looked for the puppy that shared these traits. (Mystery Science: mysteryscience.com/animals/mystery-4/trait-variation-inheritance-artificial-selection)

On Friday Molly Gellar, our Farm to School liaison visited the class.  With her, she brought several squash varieties (all grown in the garden at MES).  Students then worked in small groups to make squash pancakes.  Each student had a different responsibility on the recipe.  The students all sampled the pancakes with a little bit of maple syrup!  Yum! Scroll down to see the students in action.

Scooping the flesh from this baked Honey Squash.

Students work to measure ingredients!

Mixing up the batter.

Students check the recipe to measure correctly.

Team work!

Students worked together to wash the dishes.

Molly Set up a cooking station in the classroom.

taste test!  Yum!

Some students drew still lives of the squash while they waited.

I want to commend everyone for your efforts on remote days!  The past two remote Wednesdays we have had full attendance at our morning meeting and we have had nearly full completion of assignments! 

Reminders:

• Library is Monday.  Don't forget your books!  Students who remember their books 5 times in a row become "Gold Card" library students who then get to check out  up to 4 books and take a book activity home!
• PE is Tuesday and Thursday.  Please be on time and bring your sneakers!  Students who arrive late, may miss PE for the day as it is disruptive to the group to interrupt the class.
• Don't forget to charge your iPad at home and bring your headphones to school!
• Students should be reading  and filling out their reading logs!  don't forget to include your minutes so we can reach our first reading goal (8,000 minutes).  We are almost halfway there!
• Email me for lunch orders for Monday and Tuesday!
• There is NO SCHOOL next Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.  Happy Thanksgiving!

"That pancake Squash was good."

Wishing you all a safe and healthy Thanksgiving!