News & Notes {not to mention chlorophyll}

Yep, chlorophyll might have been the highlight of the week.  We had been discussing photosynthesis which led nicely into a little learning activity about chlorophyll.  Students were able to rub chlorophyll out of a few leaves onto a paper to create a tree picture.  (See photos below.)  Though I think this activity took the cake, I was surprised with the enthusiasm students seemed to have for learning about plurals and prefixes.  This class really seems to enjoy their grammar.  :)

Here's a few reminders for this week:

- Our "50 Dollars in 50 Days Challenge" has officially begun!  I'm excited that we will all be learning about world poverty and being Christ's hands and feet through this service project.  If you haven't yet looked at the packet of information that was sent home, please do so.  The challenge began on November 1st and will run until December 23.

- Grandparents' Day is on Thursday!  If you indicated that your child would be packing lunch on Thursday, I will send a reminder email home on Wednesday evening, just to ensure that each student has a lunch.  Remember that this is a half day due to Parent-Teacher Conferences taking place for the remainder of the day.

- Please ensure that your child has clothing suitable for 15-20 minutes outside (i.e. jackets, hats, light gloves).  We are in November now!

And now... A Peek At Our Week!

- Language Arts --- Our reading focus this week is on identifying the main idea.  This is a tricky concept, so we will go slowly and revisit this skill several times throughout the year.  In our Writer's Workshop, we will be discovering how we can revise our work by taking words out to better focus on our main point.  We will also be discussing proper nouns which I expect will be a hit.  (I know how these kiddos like their grammar!)

- Math --- The main focus of math this week is on making change.  We will also touch on frames and arrows again, but making change will take the brunt of our energy.

- Science --- Students will be creating their final project for our Plant unit.  After this project is complete, we will be moving to a Social Studies unit.

- Bible --- Students will review the exodus from Egypt and then study how God provided for the Israelites in the desert.  We will discuss how God provides for us today as a connecting point.

 Here are a few examples of the chlorophyll rubbings.  It was so much fun to watch these develop from start to finish!

Rub, rub, rub!  Get that chlorophyll out!

 Earlier in the week, we learned how the shape of leaves indicated how much sunlight a plant needed.  So, of course, we had to head out into the sunlight to experiment!

For math, we collected pocket data and ordered our data from least to greatest and then learned how to find the median.

 In our next lessons, we learned how display our data in a few different ways.

 We created both bar graphs and picture graphs.

 As a Friday activity, students started learning how to play a game called Bullseye.  Students toss paper clips at a target to create a number and then write that number in expanded form.  Great for understanding place value!