The Gower Gazette
Week 6- Sept. 7, 2018
In The Classroom...
The past two weeks have been focused on retelling fiction stories and understanding story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution, and lesson). Last week the kids worked collaboratively to create visuals for the story elements in Farmer Duck. The teamwork was awesome with this activity and the kids showed their creativity. We created a short clip sharing these. You can watch it below this section. This week our Book of the Week was A Bad Case of Stripes. The kids really enjoyed this story. We worked on using context clues to help us understand and figure out unknown words along with sequencing events. The kids discovered importance of retelling a story in the correct order through an art activity.
In Writer's Workshop, we are still working on personal narratives. Last week I wrote about a festival I went to in Scotland. Then took the week to take the kids on a virtual field trip to this amazing country. I shared videos of the Military Tattoo festival (Tattoo in Scotland is not the body art, but the celebration of culture and music). The kids heard music and saw bands from all over the world. They really enjoyed the drummers from Scotland, the music and performers from Mexico and seeing the United States Air Force. They got to see/hear bagpipes, some fireworks, and use my VR headseat to stand in the very spot I did at Edinburgh Castle. We also took a boat ride to Loch Ness. The kids heard the legend of this monster through National Geographic, I shared with them a story titled Nessie and then clips from my boat ride on this Loch. Did we see Nessie??? You'll have to ask your child. To end our fun on the loch, we headed to Busch Gardens for a virtual ride on the Loch Ness Monster rollercoaster. We explored the traditional foods from Scotland as well through story and pictures of my meals. The kids enjoyed the story, Granny and the Wild Haggis and understanding that people from different countries eat different foods as a part of their culture. We also read a couple of Scottish Fairytales and we compared them to ones we have heard before. I loved sharing these experiences with the kids and seeing their curiosity about Scotland. After each "field trip" the kids added to their personal narratives. I have a small gift (nothing big) from Scotland that I will be sharing with the kids on Monday.
You guys have some awesome mathematicians. We have been working on adding within 20. The kids learned the parts of an equation- addends & the sum. Ask him/her to share what they are. As we talked about in conferences, there are many different methods that can be used to solve math problems. This week we looked at 3. We started with counting all (ex: 7+4= [] ooooooo l oooo- Ss would count all the circles to get the sum); then we decided that counting all took a long time so we moved to counting on from the biggest number (ex: 7 +4= [] 7 l oooo- Ss say 7 and count on 8, 9, 10, 11). The last math method we focused on this week was using a number line. Ask your child what an open number line is. Using an open number line is another great way to add/count on. Next week we will be looking at Math Mountains and then switching to a more difficult concept of missing addends. I know the kids will do great! They had a blast with Math Stations this week which helped them build a more solid foundation with addition. Your child can use Freckle Math or Moby Max at home to help them with addition to 20. Their login info is on the back of his/her homework folder.
Science fun!!! The kids are loving learning about the moon. We have sung songs, took a virtual field trip to the moon, explored moon phases and had some great conversations about what's happening in the night sky. This week the kids used flashlights and styrofoam balls to make each phase of the moon and observe how they occur. We also used Oreos to create the moon phases. Don't worry the kids ate only 4 moons, but before they could, they had to tell a friend which moon phase they were eating.
We are continuing to work on building our classroom community and understanding empathy for Social Studies. This week we used our Book of the Week to understand bullying and why it's wrong.
The kids also got to meet with their Book Buddy for the first time. We partner with Mrs. Beard's fourth grade class. This is a great time for the kids to read AR books and take the test.
Whew!!! As you can see we had a lot to do in these last four days. I hope your child came home sharing with you some of these activities. We definitely have had fun learning!
Please do not forget to read the Notes section for important info especially a note about Dot Day!!!
Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you all next week.
~Ms. Gower
Dot Day!
We Could Use...
We have some moon projects coming up and need the following items for these activities:
- Star stickers
- Shaving cream
- Black glitter glue
- 12x12 white cardstock
- Large white marshmallows
- Baking soda
- Black food coloring
- Silver glitter
- 5 round aluminum pans
- Gift Card to Michaels ( to purchase Tie-dye for class shirts)
Mark Your Calendars!
- Sept. 14- Dot Day! Wear LOTS of dots =)
- Sept. 28- Early Release & End of 1st Quarter
- Oct. 19- Track Out!
Notes-
- Pictures- Fall pictures went home on Friday. They are inside your child's Friday Folder. Please send in the money for these photos next week or send them back to school if you choose not to purchase. They really turned out great!
- Volunteers- We are ready to start scheduling volunteers in the classroom. I will be sending a schedule in your child's homework folder with time slots where volunteers are needed. After I get these back, I will schedule time blocks for parents who'd like to help. Please know that while younger siblings are invited to our class parties, we ask that they not come while you volunteer in the classroom as this can sometimes disrupt our routine and is also Wake County Policy. If you choose to volunteer you will need to make arrangements for childcare during your time block. Also, don't forget that to complete the Wake County Volunteer application. This HAS to be done every year. The deadline is October 31st. You have to be cleared as a star volunteer in order to help in the classroom and attend our field trip in the fall.
- Parties Anyone?- I am looking for a few parents who want to plan our class parties. We will have 3 this year, a fall festival, holidays around the world, and our storybook ball. If you would like to help organize and plan these fun events send me a Dojo.
- Dot Day- Don't forget to read the above post about Dot Day. It's going to be awesome!
WSES- Embracing the Needs of Every Child!
"In order to succeed, we must first BELIEVE that we can"
~Nikos Kazantzakis
Email: egower@wcpss.net
Website: msgower.weebly.com
Location: 6800 Dwight Rowland Rd.
Phone: (919) 557- 2770
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msgower/
Twitter: @MsGowersClass