During the months of November and December, all classroom teachers were invited to sign up for a lesson with Mrs. Gregory using the Blue Bots. Blue Bots were purchased last year by the SCA, and they are used to help students learn and practice early computer coding skills. Students LOVE the bots, and now that we have our own set teachers can check them out from our library any time.
Language Arts:
During the months of November and December, we have been reading some amazing picture books which have helped us develop higher level comprehension skills. We have also used the books as a way to learn and practice new vocabulary. From Porkenstein, we learned creation, incredible, colossal, disbelief, creaky, and isolated. From Grandpa's Teeth we learned complain, description, mystery, suspect, conspiracy, and sleuth. From Dear Mrs.LaRue we learned melodramatic, misconception, neglected, obedience, despair, and persistent. Math: During math, a small group of students has worked with beginning algebra thinking by solving problems using patterns and tables. They also learned to play a fantastic thinking game called "Set." Set is available through popular retailers, and would make a great addition to your collection of family games since it's appropriate for a wide range of ages. Mrs. Huckstep's entire class also worked on critical thinking skills through a series of puzzles called "Logic Links." A small group of Mrs. Huckstep's students have been working on creating their own digital picture books through Storybird. These students are now beginning to teach their classmates how to use the ipads to log in to the site, create a picture book, add and delete pages, select pictures, type text, edit, and save their work. All students in the class will be creating their own picture book, so be sure to have them log in at home to show you what they and their classmates are doing.
During math, I have worked with a small group to enrich their understanding of fact families. First, students worked with known numbers to find unknown numbers represented by n. Then students worked on beginning algebraic thinking by finding many possible solutions for keeping scales (equations) balanced. This year, I will be collaborating with Mrs. Huckstep during her reading block twice each week and during her Social Studies and Science block twice each week. We will be integrating the curriculum to include math as well. Already, a small group of students has worked with me to extend their understanding of character traits. We read Julius, Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes. Students stretched themselves by using advanced and sophisticated vocabulary rather than the most obvious words to describe the characters. We also used another Kevin Henkes book (Sheila Rae, the Brave) to explore main and supporting characters. During Social Studies, students have worked to create a community with rules. We have just begun our science unit about magnets.
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Mrs. GregoryMrs. Gregory has been a teacher for 25 years. She lives in Montpelier with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. Archives
January 2017
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