This week in ILA we will focus on the ‘or’ sound. Students will brainstorm words with this combination and work on spelling words by sounding them out. In centers, students will sort words and pictures according to the ‘or’ sound or short ‘o’, use the ‘or’ listening center, write stories inspired by a picture, and complete a book about the life cycle of a butterfly. In writer’s workshop, the boys and girls will experiment with a variety of fabrics and water. They will use their experiences with wood and paper to formulate a hypothesis about the results in regards to fabrics. Throughout the week the students will be compiling data into lab reports.
In math we will continue to work with missing subtrahends. The boys and girls will use their previous knowledge of fact families along with manipulatives to solve these missing number equations. As the week moves on, we will explore composite shapes. Composite shapes are figures that can be divided into more than one of the basic shapes. Students will use pattern blocks to create and decompose composite shapes. They will then create an arts and crafts project that ties imagination, creativity, and composite shapes together. This week’s fast facts will review addition with regrouping. Other activities will include a coin counting game on the computer, work with fractions, and comparing addition sentences.
Throughout social studies this week we will focus on family change. We will start by having each student brainstorm a way their family has changed during their lifetime. This could be the birth of other children, moving, or getting older. After sharing these ideas and experiences, students will use a song to gain further understanding of family changes. Our discussions will then move back to how families care for one another by doing things for each other, or chores. We will discuss how responsibilities or chores change as family members change. On Friday we will study Memorial Day. The conversations will include the meaning behind this day, some of the celebrations which typically occur, and what our country and its symbols mean to us.
Science this week brings us to our study of day and night. As a preview, students had science buddies with the second grade last week. During this time they worked on illustrating the day and night sky, creating constellations, and making telescopes. This week we will use that previous knowledge to compare and contrast the day and night sky. Students will then sort pictures of things that can be found in the day and night sky. Our study will then move into learning about the movement of the sun. Students will gain an understanding of how Earth’s rotation creates day and night.