Chapter summaries

We have been working hard on our chapter summaries after we read each chapter in our MTH book. Here  are some examples and the steps to the writing process to use when your child is writing at home. 

Jack and Annie heard a screech.

Annie went into the castle.

Annie was running over the drawbridge.

Annie found a castle. 

Castle video

I am taking a class all about ipads we have been learning all of these great apps to use and how to integrate them into the classroom and foster a strong home-school connection. This is my first mini project using animoto. I put together a brief show with some pictures from our powerpoints from background knowledge week. I added some short text, which some children will be able to read. This should be a great conversation starter, ad I hope to make some more for our next topics! I hope you find it useful.

castle video

Catapults!

In science lab today we watched a PowerPoint about catapults. We learned about a few different kinds of catapults and talked about what they were used for in the Middle Ages. We also talked about force, motion, and energy. Each pair of partners made a catapult together using a Popsicle stick, a paper clip, a bottle cap, and a Pom Pom. They assembled their catapult together and tried to aim it at their paper castle. Ask your child- were you able to knock down the castle? Did your catapult shoot straight or to the side? Why do you think that happened? Were you able to use more than one Pom Pom?

Jack and Annie's adventure

This week, we have started to read "A Knight at Dawn," and we have begun to dramatize the story, adding 1 chapter each day. The cliffhangers at the end of each chapter really leave us wanting to read more!

It's quite a challenge to remember the sequence of events in a chapter book, but we are working with our team members to remember the important parts of the story. The director has an important role in dramatization- he or she holds a special book with the pictures from the days' chapters, and the team uses this to help remember what happens in each part. The sound effects role is also important- he or she is in charge of making noises like climbing up the ladder, the treehouse spinning, or the voices of the other characters like the knight riding the horse. Ask your child was his or her role was in today's dramatization. 

We have turned our play kitchen into a castle, too! Each day at choice time we take turns to play in the castle- it is amazing how much knowledge is being dramatized during choice time! today, the servants were eating leftover food from the feast and making faces, saying they wish they could eat the fresh food like the royalty! Minstrels and jesters entertained the royals at the feats, while the guards were protecting the castle, pulling up the drawbridge when they saw enemies approach. 

Forbidden words

 Forbidden words is an easy game to play at home, but it requires a high level of self regulation. The main idea of the game is to answer questions without using the forbidden words. For this game, I asked each pair of partners, "Do you like chocolate ice cream?" Or "Would you like to be a doctor when you grow up?" You can think of a variety of questions, and your partners has to think of a different way to answer these questions. Instead of saying "yes" or "no," children would say, "Chocolate ice cream is my favorite!" Or "I'd rather be a scientist when I grow up." See how many ways you and your child can answer questions without using forbidden words! A fun game to play during dinner!

Welcome to our castle!

Here is the entrance to our classroom!

Below are some of our treehouses that we made for dramatization this week. 

Castles background knowledge week

This week, we are learning lots of facts about castles. Each day we do a PowerPoint presentation on   different topic. So far, we have learned about what castles look like, what drawbridges are for, how castles are protected, what happens inside the castle at feasts, how food is cooked at a feast, who prepares the food, and what royalty eat at the feast. Each day, we write one fact that we learned, and we will put them all together into individual fact books. 

During Centers, we all make props for next week when we dramatize A Knight at dawn. We are making castles, flags, tree houses, houses for Jack and Annie, and torches to light our way in the castle. We are turning our dramatic play area into a mini castle, so that we can play out some of our castle scenes at choice time, too. More photos to come! 

Fall scavenger hunt

For science lab today we brainstormed a list of the many things we knew about fall- leaves change color, they fall from trees, and the weather gets cooler. We read "Red leaf, Yellow leaf" by Lois Elhert and then began a fall scavenger hunt. Each pair of partners had a list of items to find, and they collected them together into a bag. Ask your child what he or she found on our hunt! What was the trickiest item to find? Why? 

We made collages using all of the items we collected on our hunt. Which was the hardest to stick to your paper?

Apple science lab

On the way to grandmother's house, Little Red Riding Hood might have picked some apples. Today, each pair of children dissected an apple and discovered a shape inside the apple core if they cut it a certain way. What shape did you find? How many seeds were inside? What is the flesh of the apple?

We also did a taste test to see which kind we liked best. The three choices were red delicious, golden delicious, and pink lady. Which was the class favorite?

We also drew and wrote about our observations. 

Math take 2!

For math centers this week, we have been working on some new games-

Play dough numbers- we used really stiff modeling clay to strengthen hand muscles. This is easy to do at home!

We made apples out of red construction paper.

We made creations using unifix cubes and following a direction card. We will use these with partners soon.

We read "The Shape of Things" and made our first avenger shape pictures. What did you turn your circle into? Here we have a car, Ferris wheel, person, flower, and Apple tree.

We have been working on different kinds of puzzles- we are close to starting our 100 piece puzzles! These are great to do at home. After the puzzle is finished, the group takes turns playing "I Spy" about some things they notice in the puzzle. 

Math centers

This week we had 5 new math centers to play. In a game called "first off the bridge," we pretended we were the billy goats trying to get across. We rolled a die labeled with + 1, +2, -1, -2, etc. A plus sign meant you could move forward, but a minus meant you had to move backwards. It was hard to cross the bridge!

We made pattern block pictures using many different shapes. 

We played dot Bingo, a game where partners roll a die and cover up one way to make that number, using dots, fingers, ten frames, or a numeral.

We played the numerals game again, but this time we used tricky teen numbers. The "hand" person drew a card and counted out that many jelly beans into the bowl (we call it the tractor). They deliver their jelly beans to the farmer, who checks their delivery on the check sheet. 

We also worked as a team to build a tricky puzzle- we will be doing more complicated puzzles in a few weeks, and these are great to work on at home. It really helps to build spatial awareness, cooperation, and visual discrimination. We will start 100 piece puzzles, working on cardboard to save the sections as we finish them, and put the a side to work on later.