November News

Reading and Social Studies are being integrated during our Molly's Pilgrim and Thanksgiving units. Students are using lapbooks to expand their comprehension skills as we read Molly's Pilgrim, a story about an immigrant girl who helps her third grade class learn it takes all kinds of pilgrims to make Thanksgiving, not just the ones who were on the Mayflower. Students' lapbooks contain a vocabulary match, a character trait graphic organizer to compare and contrast main characters, graphic organizers, and comprehension questions to reflect on the story's conflict, resolution, and message. Next week we'll be watching the movie and compare and contrast it to the book.

During Social Studies we've taken Scholastic virtual field trips to visit the Mayflower, Plimoth Plantation, and a Wampanoag village. Students have been writing facts they've learned about each on a recording sheet in their Thanksgiving booklets. Books we've read about these subjects include On the Mayflower, The Very First Thanksgiving, Sarah Morton's Day, Samuel Eaton's Day, Fact vs Fiction: The First Thanksgiving, and The Wampanoags. Students compared and contrasted their lives to pilgrim childrens'  as well as comparing and contrasting the first Thanksgiving to today's celebration. They also examined a miniature Wampanoag canoe called a mishoon, Native American jewelry, and photos of my trips to Plimouth Plantation and the Mayflower.

In Science we've begun a new unit on forces, simple machines, and types of energy. Students learned how force and friction affect how objects move. We read Simple Machines and then made flipbooks that define and give examples of each. After reading about gravity and magnetism we watched a BrainPOP video about them and scored 100% on its online assessment! During the next few weeks we'll be learning about potential vs kinetic energy and electrical, sound, and light energy.

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Now that we've learned strategies to multiply such as making groups, using repeated addition, and skip counting we've begun learning the 0-12 times tables. Each table is introduced using a song found in students' multiplication folders. Students then write the times table we're learning in a bubble number that goes in their binders. After more practice such as matching equation cards to answer cards or playing "multiplication ball" the children complete a drill. The next day we continue practicing multiplying the number using our Envision math program's videos and workbook. So far we've learned the 0-6 times tables. Students should continue to practice at home using their multiplication folders.

Wishing everyone a wonderful month!