Grade 1/2 room 3: What Room 3 was doing this week!!!!

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all well. We had a very busy schedule this week. On top of our daily subjects and learning, we have been preparing for our presentation for next week's character trait assembly. Unfortunately, Art, Fun Friday activity time and DPA took a back-burner this week, as Ms. Ritsakis' class joined us to learn our song and actions so we can be ready for next week.
A copy of the song was sent home in each child's book bag. They are encouraged to practice the song at home and to view it on YouTube (the Bucket Song by the Learning Station). The song is so cute - you don't want to miss it. The assembly is scheduled for next Friday. For anyone who can't make it, don't worry we will record it and take pictures.

Click the link below to go directly to the song:
Bucket Song

Another thing I would like to mention is that we could not have book exchange this week because the library was occupied by the kindergarten class on our book exchange day.

With our first snowfall this week, the boys and girls were eager to build snow forts. Unfortunately some students in our school did not show empathy, therefore the building of snow forts has been put on hold until further notice.
One suggestion: It may be a good idea to send an extra pair of pants and a shirt in a ziplock bag with your child. There were a few students that were left with wet pants because they didn't have snow pants on.

Here is what we did this week:

Language:

In Language we have been continuing with procedural writing during our Writer's Workshop. This week we did some shared writing on how to brush our teeth (the students that are seen in the picture were chosen by drawing out popsicle sticks that have their name on them) and how to blow a bubble using bubble gum (you will see the pictures below. Don't worry, they chewed gum to attempt to blow a bubble, but disposed of their gum right after and then rinsed their mouths with toothpaste). For independent practice they wrote about the steps involved in washing their hands. Next week we will do one final independent task and then wrap up our unit on procedural writing before moving on to Letter Writing.
Journal writing has been getting significantly better. I am so impressed with the students' progress in writing in such a short period of time. Everyone is trying their best to achieve a level 4.
For our Reader's Workshop we read three different versions of a book called Stone Soup. We looked at the procedures required to make Stone Soup and next week we will attempt to make our own Stone Soup. Moreover, we will get into comparing the texts using a Venn Diagram and we will make text-to-text connections. One guided reading group has also been chosen to do a mini skit on the book. They are eagerly waiting to practice and present.
Our focus in Language this week was looking singular and plural nouns. We learned about nouns, came up with a list of nouns, discussed where to capitalize nouns and then practiced singular and plural nouns. Below you will see a picture of one of the anchor charts we co-constructed.

Math:

In Math we have been continuing with Number Sense. This week we continued to work on mental math strategies, place value, problem solving, and Fact Families. Students worked in pairs and independently. They also played some math games using dice to determine place value.

Science:

Science presentations have been continuing. We still have quite some time to complete them before moving on to our next Science Unit and starting our Social Studies unit.
Another amazing thing that has been going on in our classroom has been observing the life cycle of a butterfly. For her project on Butterflies, Filia brought in some caterpillars for our class. On Monday morning I came in and saw that all five had made it up to the top of the container lid and had formed the pupa/chrysalis stage. I removed them from the small container and transferred them into a larger net. We are still anxiously awaiting for them to turn into butterflies. Unfortunately we cannot release them as they will not survive in the cold. Below you will see a couple of pictures.

ENJOY THE PICTURES BELOW:
I have also included two problem solving questions that we worked on last week (one is for Grade 1, the other is Grade 2). Also, the DPA pictures are from last week as well.