October 21-25

This last week in Science, the kids all tested insulators to keep liquids hot and we will wrap up this discussion on Monday. They also tested out their own insulators that built and brought in from home. I was glad to see that it looked like on the most part, the kids made the projects themselves using what they learned in class. In the end, we found that styrofoam made the best insulator and water caused the ice cube to melt the fastest. 

This week in 2A:

Math - We are going to be exploring place value further to the tens and ones. However, we have also started looking at hundreds for those kids who have the others pretty down pat. We are also going to be comparing numbers looking at their place values to see which are bigger.

We learned some new games to practice math skills this last week using dice and dominos. 

1. The first is called Tic-Tac-Twelve. Students used a game sheet and a set of dominoes. They turned over a domino and then covered the sum of the pips (dots) on their game sheet trying to make rows of 3 before their partner did. If you have dominos at home and want 2 copies of the game sheet to play with your child, please email me or write a note in their agenda and I will send some.

2. The second is a place value game using stratedice sets. Students would roll dice and place them on their gameboard to make the largest number they can (one roll at at time) compared to their partners. This game not only practices place value skills but also probability. 

Language Arts - This week we are exploring different vowel combinations to make different sounds during our Daily 5 time. This will not only help with reading skills but also spelling skills too. I have been conferencing 1 on 1 with students to work on some of their individual and specific literacy challenges.

Science - This week we are discussing how animals bodies are naturally insulated to adapt to their environments and how humans protect themselves from heat and cold. Last week we began talking about this, discussing body temperature and what happens to our bodies when they get too hot or too cold. 

I just want to say thank you again to all the great parent volunteers that came out this past while to help with prepping activities, helping with art and reading with kids. Their help only enriches the educational experience for all the great kids in my class. 

This week's spelling words:

1.	gum
2.	pot
3.	dust
4.	frog
5.	must
6.	Giovanni

I left my camera at school but this coming week I will try to post some pictures from the past while.