Position Words

Some of our math standards in the current unit on shapes and fractions involve using position words to describe location and relationship. We spent some math time this week looking at the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky and a few others. We made careful observations and practiced using position words such as left, right, down, up, top, bottom, between and middle. Students also named types of lines and shapes, size and color. We learned about parallel and intersecting lines as well as how shapes can overlap. Ask your child about playing "Pass the Painting" and about creating a group mural of lines and shapes. Next week we will reflect on this process and write down some of the observations we made using position words.

Applesauce!

Thank you for sending the apples in this week. This was a completely student-run project. I was impressed how the students came up with the idea, wrote the letter, and brought the apples in based on the student message sent home. With a little help in class today, students took turns peeling and chopping apples and adding a few key ingredients. Thanks to our pioneers in this project, Camila, Kyle and Yagmur, for serving us the applesauce. We have tied this experience into our study of poetry. Students observed and thought like poets today during the whole applesauce-making process...first noticing and describing the look and feel of the whole apples, and then the taste and texture of the finished applesauce. Stay tuned for apple-inspired poetry.

Landforms and Water

Recently students played a matching game where they learned the names, descriptions and visual features of different landforms and bodies of water found in Oman. This is part of our mapping unit, where we are learning about the different types of information we can get from maps. Next students will practice directional words to use when finding locations on maps - left, right, below, above, etc. They will also learn the cardinal directions north, east, south and west.

Shape Designs

Our shape exploration continues. Students are becoming adept at counting sides and corners, and even naming less obvious shape names like trapezoid, hexagon and rhombus. Today students made designs to cover a given outline. They then tallied the number of each type of shape they used and found the grand total of shapes used for each design.

First Week Back

Our first week of 2013 has been a full one. We have been busy with a lot of group and partner work. We have started our new writing unit. This week we learned about the parts of a letter and did some shared letter writing as a class as well as responding to the story Click Clack Moo with letters written in pairs. Our new math unit on Shapes and Fractions has begun. We played a game where students orally described a hidden design to a partner who then tried to copy the design based on the shape names, descriptions, and position words used. We also began our new Social Studies on Mapping. Students explored books and actual maps, and we brainstormed what we know about types of maps and how maps are used. Ask your child how a map might have helped Hansel and Gretel! Also stay tuned...we will be requesting some photos for the Science/Weather portion of this unit.