We finished up our study of Rocks and have now moved on to a science and engineering unit about building bridges. Be sure to take some time to review the science journals students brought home this week. We kicked off the bridges unit with a visit from the teachers at the Museum of Science. Thank you to the PTO for funding this!
Currently we are learning about different types of bridges and how we can make bridges more stable. We are experimenting with materials and doing experiments based on questions and the results of previous experiments. Not only are we reading and experimenting we are writing about it! Yes we are writing lab reports just like a scientist would. Science writing is an important skill too!
In math, we continue developing our number sense and have become CRAZY for data. We have been collecting data about ourselves and friends at school. We have been practicing ways to sort, classify, collect and represent data. Finally we have been interpreting this data. What do we notice? What can this tell us about this group? The students have been careful and precise in their descriptions.
We wrapped up our Informational reading and writing exploration and have dug into reading with fluency and with a deeper understanding of the meaning of the text. We just performed small group reader's theater presentations. We spent time practicing as we were learning tricks to sound like the characters in our books. We will continue to dig deep into the authors's message and how the author uses special language to tell the story.
Finally we have started our study of the 7 continents! We mapped out the different land masses and made globes representing them. You can see them hanging in our classroom. We will start traveling to each continent after the February break. First stop is Africa!