Field Trip, Dr. Suess, Geometry, Amazing Animals!

We had a great trip to the Museum of Natural History on February 25, 2015. It was a long and bumpy ride down to D.C., but once we got there, everyone was so excited to explore. The children enjoyed learning about mammals, rocks and gems, insects, mummies, and so much more. We had a lot of chaperones who were able to attend with us, so many thanks again to all of the parents who were able to ride the bus with us, or meet us there. 

Dr. Seuss' birthday was on March 2nd, so we have been spending some time exploring his books and the concept of rhyming words.  Our literacy centers are all "Seuss" themed, and we are trying to find as many words that rhyme as we can in the books we listen to each day.  We've been to the computer lab twice lately.  The first time we explored www.seussville.com and played some fun and cool games there, while also learning about the different characters Seuss created.  Today we played rhyming games from pbskids.org. 

In writing, we are keeping up with our weekend journals, and we practiced writing words and sentences that rhyme.  We continue to work on writing conventions, such as using uppercase letters to begin sentences, lowercase letters throughout the rest of our writing, and periods at the end of each sentence.  I'm so proud of how far the children have come this year with their writing.  It's amazing to think back to the beginning of the year when they were just drawing and labeling pictures.  Now, they can write more than one sentence, and usually an adult can read it and understand what they are trying to write!   Next up, we will be writing "how-to" books! 

In math we are wrapping up our unit on geometry.  Students are learning the names and attributes (or ways to describe) both 2D/flat shapes and 3D/solid shapes.  We have new math zones with games and activities to help us understand the differences between all of these shapes!

 

Soon we'll switch gears back to numbers and begin basic addition and subtraction!  I know many of you (and your children) have been patiently waiting for this unit to arrive.

We finished up our study of animal external features by learning about animals with amazing beaks.  You'll see an example of each amazing animal feature coming home soon.  We're on to social studies next with a look at natural and capital resources, wants vs. needs and goods and services.