Pine Class News
April 3
Welcome Spring
New Integrated Unit
This week we officially started our new integrated unit, “How is Brooklyn connected to the rest of New York State?” To start off the unit we began talking about resources specifically comparing what the Lenape used to survive and what we use to survive. Here’s the list we came up with:
On Tuesday we went on a quick walking trip to The Green Grape to begin thinking about where we get our food. When we got there we walked around, looked at the produce and met with the produce manager Jason, who was able to answer some of our questions.
Some of the questions that we asked Jason were:
"What is produce?"
"Do you get any fruits or vegetables from New York?"
"How can fruits or vegetables grow in New York if it is so cold?"
After visiting The Green Grape, we began looking through the pictures we took and at some foods we eat everyday. This led to a discussion about where in the world our food comes from. Ww took out our world map and began charting the different locations. We were able to find 4 locations - 2 in Pennsylvania, Argentina and Thailand - that are sources for the foods we eat everyday . We will continue to map more food in the coming days.
Show your children the map and see if they can remember the foods we looked at and which of the locations they come from.
Story Problems
This week we continued to practice our problem solving skills by working out a problem that separates apples into bowls. One part of our problem solving was to make sure our answer was so detailed that anyone would be able to guess the problem just by looking at our answer. After working on it independently, we came up with one answer as a class and tested it to see if multiple adults around the building could guess the question.
Look at the answer with your child and see if you can guess the question correctly just by looking at it. We will place the whole problem in the newsletter next week so we don’t give too much away.
Reading
After re-establishing our reading spots last week, we have been working on re-establishing the norms for independent reading and rebuilding our reading stamina as a class. On Monday, we came up with a list of rules for independent reading to help us stay focused on our book.
We were then able to use these rules - and with the support of the adults in our room and our middle school friends - to help us build our reading stamina to 25 minutes as a class.
Has your child found a reading spot at home where they can continue to build on their reading stamina?
Make Art
This week we continued to turn our etchings into prints. Each child worked with a partner and made 3 prints of their image. After printing their image children began to write about their print and talk about how it connects to the Lenape. We look forward to finding out next week what medium we will be using to create new prints.
Spring Conferences
Due to our schedules we are having some conferences within the next couple of weeks after school.
If you have not yet signed up for a spring conference please email Paul at Paul@brooklyncompass.org and Jessica at Jessica@brooklyncompass.org to schedule a time.