Dear Parents,
I'm hard at work at your newsletter and you should expect to see that posted very soon, but I also wanted to give you a taste of what we've been working on most recently.
This week we've continued to focus on building polyhedrons. I've been doing lessons to consolidate the differences between the shapes and helping students identify patterns between the number of sides and corners.
Here's an example of a chart we created to show the patterns between the number of sides and corners in different shapes:
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| Triangles form a point form different shaped bases |
Students are slowly beginning to use the mathematical language when talking about shapes. Calling a shape a rectangular prism vs. a box, for example, is an important distinction because it places the shape in a context for them. They're also slowly developing their instincts when looking at nets about what kinds of shapes they'll become.
We've continued to make shapes from plastic shapes and also to create them from raw materials like popsicle sticks and straws. I've given students different challenges because some shapes are trickier to create without falling apart.
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| Triangular prisms can be pretty tricky |
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| I like catching them smiling. Pentagonal Pyramid was one of my challenges. |
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| Team Hexagonal Pyramid uses a plastic shape for reference |
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| Success! |
Other students were taxed with counting sides and corners:
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| We built this city with plastic shapes |
Another major focus in the classroom has been Earth Day. We've been talking a lot about reducing, reusing and recycling and students have come up with some great examples. For instance, today, Blake talked about how he had his yogurt in a reusable container and that helped save plastic. Students have also been using extra cardboard to make a variety of exciting things.
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| A space ship of course. |
We used our opening circle to talk about how to sort the garbage in our room last week as well and students had a pretty good idea of what went where:
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| Authentic student writing and spelling |
And lest you think reading is falling by the wayside, here's a bonus super cute photo of some junior kindergarteners choosing to read on their own.
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| A rare sighting in the wild |
