End of the 2021-2022 school year! We had a great year and learned a lot. We wrapped up the rainforest, went on a field trip, enjoyed some performances and field days, and then finished the year with ice cream! Oh what a year!!
0 Comments
We are so busy during our school days, they are filled with so much conversation, laughter, and fun. We studied the water crisis and how it affects so many areas around the world. Enjoyed the puppet show that Mrs. Linse's club made and she showed the youngers how to build castles. We wrote our own fairy tales. We built triangles with straws and filters with sand. We learned about fractions and and measurement, even getting outside to practice! We took a look at the water cycle and planted some grass to study the roots. We have been hard at work applying spelling patterns when we read and learning to recognize and write the cursive letters. We planted trees with our K-3 buddies and watched another play (the fisherman and his wife). The kids have come so far, can't believe we only have a month left!! We had a very busy February and March. We played in the snow and with each other day after day, building relationships and cool structures. We talked about our big emotions and what is within our circle of control. We started working on dollar words from our read aloud story. We got together with our k-3 buddies to share some books and each others company. We practiced spelling and learned about complete sentences. We challenged our engineering skills with the spark balls from Mrs. Linse. We studied text features and leaders. We learned about character traits, genres, and dug deep into fairy tales. We practiced finding perimeter and area and saw a play of Aesops Fables. We enjoyed a valentines exchange and reviewed our classroom expectations. We also wrote letters to the change makers in our lives. And these are just the things that I captured with the camera!!
Man this school year has been busy! I usually try to post each month about what has been happening within the 4 walls of our classroom, but 2021 sure got away from me! Kids started off the year with Mrs. Olek and I entered the scene mid November. We have learned so much since then!! Here is the photos of the rest of 2021!! I promise next post will have more info about the learning that has happened!! April, May, and June was a lot of transitioning for us. We finished out the school year going back full time and the students (and their teacher) couldn't have been happier! We went on learning right up until the very last day of school! We learned about climate change, division, fractions, area and perimeter, immigration and heritage, and countries. We wrote letters to Dr. Terranova and had him come visit, we completed their amazing heritage projects: best part of me, name, family tree, and had many other end of year events. Some of the favorite things we took part in were morning play (as you can see from the million pictures), playing on the big playground, Mrs. Amato's gender reveal, the game Andy's Coming, Math Jeopardy, Field Day, multiage meet ups and the end of year ice cream party! Wow, so many things and time flew by. We had a strange and wonderful year and we definitely made the best of it! I hope you have a restful summer and I will see some of you next year! We have spent much of the year engaged online learning and Zoom meetings. It has become routine among our school learning. These two months have spanned the arctic theme. Students made arctic habitat dioramas, learned about the Inuit culture, participated in arctic stem projects. learned about the Iditarod, and explored temperature and global warming. In math we have played with arrays while learning how to multiply and focused on our multiplication facts and how to use the distributive property to solve harder facts. There was also some money and measurement thrown in there too. We have improved our reading skills and increased our reading stamina, written and published stories and practiced our spelling words. And of course created multiple morning creations since it is one the the students favorite things. Somewhere in there valentines happened too, celebrating with a little party and stem activities. Three more moths of learning left to go after this!!
January finally brought us some snow and cold, so we were able to get outside to play! But we also stayed nice and warm inside focusing on our wolf study. The kids got a chance to master google slides by creating projects at home and at school around those deciduous forest animals. Then we moved on to the arctic areas of the world. The students had so much fun creating dioramas and presentations around their knowledge. We practiced using our subtraction strategies and started reviewing math concepts from earlier in the year. We also snuck in some learning around the inauguration and buoyancy. So proud of everyones hard work!! November and December cruised by. We snuck in lots of science and social studies in between learning multiple addition strategies, how to find the most important parts while reading, and working on our independent writing stories. We were immersed into the deciduous forest, learning about seed dispersal and how plants get food. We did several experiments and practiced using the scientific method. We also studied the different types of clouds and how they fit into the water cycle. Then we moved on to a focus on wolves in the forest and how they effect the ecosystem. We discussed food chains and did a very gross, but very cool owl pellet dissection to see what they eat. Daily we spent time building creatively during free time, participating in morning meetings, and playing spelling games. We got extra practice writing poetry and responding on flipgrid. When we got closer to the holidays we did a stem project called Balloons over Broadway. We had a mini Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade and it was to much fun to wander around the halls with our creations. Then we learned about how the Rockafeller Tree gets to NYC and did another stem project to create our own giant trees. Lastly, right before Christmas the students turned into elves and tried out some of the North Pole jobs! So much fun and learning happening in such a short amount of time! Going into this year we knew it would be one like no other, but even with all the things that are different, so far its been great! We have spent some time settling in and getting to know each other, both near and far. Participated in zoom morning meetings to keep up together as a whole classroom family. We have discovered new routines, like morning choice, lunch in the classroom, and recess are great for socializing and playing, even 6 feet apart. We have filled our bookbags with many many books from the library since we get to take out 10 at a time and listened to Mrs. Amato read aloud Because of Winn Dixie. Students have learned about how others around the world go to school and how to balance both home and school work in a hybrid (or online) environment. We have studied maps and globes to find out where we fit in the world and how we are global citizens. We learned about the world around us using the scientific method and have tested many things so far, from germs to leaves, to celery. We have gone on hikes in order to make observations about nature and the deciduous forest as well as provide inspiration for our poetry. We jumped into working on spelling and place value in math. We had some "bonus learning days" where we focused on scientific concepts like clouds and the water cycle. And we rounded out the first two months with a small Halloween celebration. I have enjoyed being here with all these wonderful kids and hope that this will continue all year!! Moving into room 116 to get ready for the new school year. Its not finished yet... but here is a sneak peek!!
|