Dot Day!

We enjoyed Dot Day at KE today with lots of dot fun! National Dot Day celebrates the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.  The message of the story is that everyone can make their own mark - "Just make your mark and see where it takes you."  

We made our own marks today . . .

Students created their own drawings to display

We also made our dot t-shirts!  Students used potato and carrot stamps to apply paint to the shirts.

We also enjoyed some "dot" activities during stations  - solving a Braille (dot) riddle . . .

 


. . . and some students even created their own messages in braille!

Playing Twister

Making "dot" cereal artwork

 


We also worked on catching up on math and language assignments . ..

Mrs. Hartsock's Reading Class

Our shared story this week was The Lost and Found. Ask your child why this strange and silly story is a Fantasy.  We focused on the reading skill of sequencing/putting the events of the story in order.  

Students reading the story with a buddy

Language Skills

Our spelling list this week included words with the long u, long a, and long i sounds. We continue to work on identifying and writing complete sentences as our grammar focus (most students know the rules of beginning sentences with capital letters, ending them with an end mark, and making sure that it is a complete thought -- BUT need to remember to apply that knowledge when writing).

Spelling pretest

Practicing spelling words using the Spelling City app on the ipads

Social Studies

We continue to study map skills, and this week focused on using the compass to find locations.  Students had fun doing an interactive activity on the smart board, and doing some paper/pencil tasks using the directions on the compass to solve riddles.  We also discussed map keys, and how the key helps "unlock" what a map is showing.

Science

Our question this week: How do clouds know when to rain?  We continue to talk about the water cycle.  The kids know that cold water has more density than warm water, so when the sun heats the water it evaporates and turns into water vapor.  When water vapor is collected it makes clouds.  But when do they know when to rain?  We did an experiment using a sponge (cloud) and added drops of water.  They found out that the "cloud" has to collect enough water and then it will rain.

Mrs. Bender's Reading Class

Students who are in Mrs. Bender's reading class work on learning their reading skills through our textbook and workbook pages.  We also have a reading workshop.  During this time students select books one level above their lexile, as we want them to be challenged, to read.  While the kids are reading the teachers come around and listen to them read and ask them questions.  The kids have to tab vocabulary words they don't know and look them up using the dictionary on the laptop computers.  The kids also have to write a summary about the story they read.

9/11 Social Studies Discussion

We took a day off from our study of map skills to discuss the events of 9/11/01.  Mr. Cayton started our school day at KE by playing the National Anthem in remembrance of those who lost their loved ones or lives on 9/11.  In Social Studies class, we took a few minutes to talk about what students knew about the events of 9/11, since they were not even born when these events occurred. Many students knew the basics (that some airplanes crashed), but had lots of questions as to why we still talk about those planes and 9/11 today.  We then watched a short Brain pop video which briefly explained the happenings on 9/11/01 in child appropriate language. After the video, students had observations or questions to share. I shared with them my memories of the day, and some students were very interested in learning more facts about 9/11.  I urged them to talk to their families if they have further questions.