Room 11 Newsletter
Sarah Burdick and Debbie Herskovitz
April 25, 2017 - May 23, 2017
Integrated Learning
- Bee Bot climbing up the beanstalk
- Measuring with beans
- Flip book
In May, we will focus on our Farmer's Market. Students have been busy planting, watering, and observing how their potatoes and lettuce are growing, as well as our herbs using the hydroponic tower. We will host our annual Farmer's Market where students will get to play the role of the shopper and the shopkeeper. The children love to decorate their aprons and make shopping bags. Learning the value of a penny and being able to count out the total of items to buy, will help reinforce the math skills we have worked on all year.
Technology
Science
Essential questions:
1. What kinds of things can magnets pick up? How strong is the magnet?
2. How is the Earth like a magnet?
3. What happens to the magnetic field when you begin to move further away from the magnet? How far away will it work?
Students will learn that forces exert a “push or a pull” on objects and that examples of forces are gravity, friction, air resistance, and magnetism. One of the most interesting objects we introduce to students is Newton’s cradle. Children are amazed by this object and think critically to answer questions like: What happens to the four other balls when I release one ball? This is how we will introduce motion and let students explore different actions and reactions. The students will listen to a book, And Everyone Yelled, “Pull”, to understand the different forces and simple machines needed to get the farm products to market. We will review the six simple machines: inclined planes, levers, pulleys, screws, wedges, and wheels and axels to determine different forces and types of motion Two nonfiction books on forces and motion are available to look through and explore. Manipulatives like “Learn to Learn” Legos, balancing games, catapult creations, magnetic games, toys you find at home (yo-yos, plastic pinball machines, bouncy balls, playdough and rolling pins, tongs, windup cars, and carpet/sandpaper/tile/linoleum) provide opportunities for students to explore forces and motion.
Students will learn about the three main types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. We will ask questions like (1) Where are fossils found? (2) What types of rocks come from volcanoes? (3) What types of rocks come from rocks that are changed through heat and pressure to produce a new rock? (4) What are some properties of rocks? We will investigate rocks through sorting, patterning, heavier/lighter, buoyancy, and fluorescence. Students will learn that being a rock hound is a good thing and that asking questions about rocks helps answer many other questions. Students will be introduced to different processes like weathering and sedimentation and explore the four main types of soil: clay, silt, sand, and loam.Literacy
We are almost finished learning all 26 letters in the alphabet. We will round out the year with the letters W, V, X, and Z. The children will be practicing letter recognition and formation. By now, most of our students can recognize most, if not all, of the upper and lower case letters, can write their fist name, copy words, use inventive spelling and read simple sight words.
P.E.
Social Studies
- Coffee filter Earth
- Book page - I can help the Earth by...
- Water cycle matching
- Water cycle copy cat
Spanish
Important Dates
May 5 at 2:30 PM- Pre-K Sing
May 9-12 - Media Center's Summer Book Fair
Monday-Thursday 7:30 AM - 4:30PM & Friday 7:30 AM - 12:30PM
May 13 - Young Alumni Car Wash
May 24 - Last day of school
May 25 & 26 Parent teacher conferences