Hello 206 families and friends!
Another busy week in Room 206!
In reading, we are loving The lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Every chapter is so exciting. We discovered that Percy Jackson is a half-blood, and we are collecting clues as to who his father might be — we think it is Poseidon based on some interesting clues. Each morning we read a different Greek Myth to help piece together which characters from Greek Mythology the novel characters are based. We discussed how Greek mythological figures inspire other modern day characters and stories. Students noticed how many of the characters in Harry Potter are based on variations of Greek mythology. We are also practicing taking sketch notes for each chapter we read. Students can sketch pictures, use words and phrases to keep track of all of the information. Students are independently reading books from the series, Goddess Girls and Heroes in Training. Thank you to Leo and Teddy for loaning some of their books to the class.
In writing, each student is composing their collection opinion essay. Everyone has chosen their overall winner. Next week we will publish our papers, and design and create the trophies. We will have the award ceremony on Friday, and I will post the winners with pictures next week.
In Mystery Science we watched a video on how we can predict when it is going to storm. We created little cloud books to help us identify harmless clouds and different storm clouds. We also looked at a weather map to determine what direction winds typically blow where we live so we know which direction to look when we are checking the weather in the morning. We determined that Western winds are common in Illinois. Each morning 2 students take their guide book downstairs to look out the window facing West (back front lobby) to get a look at the clouds and report back to class. This fits nicely with our class novel, The Lightning Thief, as the weather is erratic and not following normal weather patterns. We are attributing this to angry Gods/Goddesses? Over the next few weeks we will study hurricanes and hail, as Percy narrowly escaped an unexpected wild hurricane and hail incident.
In math, we are continuing to work with fractions and are starting to add fractions with unlike denominators. In Mindset Math, students interpreted different graphs and then worked in partnerships to create one of their own, which they presented to the class. Each group came up with unique and interesting graphs, including color brightness, vehicle weight and speed, sweet and savory snacks, candy sweetness, and rare and dangerous animals. They also creatively displayed their work. Next, students chose a unit of measurement, (for example, a pencil, crayon, centimeter cube, and post-it note). They then measured different things in the classroom, such as books, desk, chair, sharing stone, even a paper clip. They discovered the smaller unit of measurements made measuring smaller items more precise, but larger items were easier with a bigger unit of measurement. Monthly Stem Project – The Boat Challenge
This month our educational goal was to design, engineer, test, modify and launch a seaworthy vessel! To prepare, we studied and discussed the Greek mathematician Archimedes principle on buoyancy and displacement, and his famous bathtub experiment! Each team of mixed grade students (grades 3-8) had time and material restrictions in which to design and construct a boat. The boats were tested in a water table with a high speed fan, to see which floated and was the fastest. All the boats stayed afloat, but some were faster due to their size, shape and placement of the sails.
The How to Catch a Storyfish mural is complete! I have included pictures below.
Have a wonderful weekend, and please reach out if you have any questions!
Ms. Beth
