Tuesday, 5/2/17

Today was a big day, as the students began to dive into their United Nations lesson! At home, they developed a sense of the purpose of the U.N..  Here in class, moved past the overview and into the "meat and potatoes" of the unit.  Students were divided into groups of 2-3, which will serve as ambassadors from four different countries.  After a thorough discussion by Mr. Jim on the subject, the class made their flags and name plates, and also worked through the formality and structure of a United Nations Conference.  I loved hearing these little voices say things like, "I yield my remaining time to my fellow Ambassador."  We will continue to work in groups, and the students will be attending their formal United Nations Conference on Tuesday of next week!

We only have a few spelling lists to go, and we are finishing up our last vocabulary list!  Today, both spelling groups played the Kangaroo Jump spelling game.  Spelling review can get boring without a little silliness!

Here at the end of the year, we are working to integrate lessons learned in grammar, handwriting, vocabulary, and more into our book studies.  The Chicken Group has been reading a short story about Ramona, who made a crown in the yard, but ended up with burs stuck all over her hair!  We are not only reading the story, but are working on comprehension and grammar skills.  Although the class has a very firm grasp on verbs as a part of speech, we have not talked about the fact that some verbs are stronger than others!  Over the next week, we will be discussing the use of exciting and descriptive verbs as a way to improve writing.  In addition, sometimes, children misuse the words "set" and "sit".  We are working through the proper use of these words, as well as others, over the next few days. 

The Guinea Group is continuing to read "The One and Only Ivan".  This story is so touching, and the students are really enjoying it!  We have been tying our grammar lessons into the novel study.  Because Ivan is the narrator of the story, it is a great book to pick apart!  We have been diagramming certain sentences throughout the book, talking about strong verb usage, noting the direct and indirect quotations, and more.  The class will be finishing up this book just in time to wrap up the year!

In science, the students have learned about the first three kingdoms: Monera, Protista, and Fungi.  Today, they learned about plants!  At home, they will dive into the difference between vascular and nonvascular plants.  In class, we talked about the parts of a seed, and they planted a bush bean.  These beans were planted in a way that will allow us to monitor the sprouts.  We'll be learning more about plants next week!