Lower El: Week 1 of Intercession

Hi Everyone,

Ms. Katie put together some brief highlights from this week and of course, lots of pictures!

Enjoy it all below!

Mr. D

* * *

This week in a nutshell:

• Getting to know each other :-) 

• Intercession has begun, so lots of play practice and running our lines! 

• Journal writing about our favorite parts of Thanksgiving break

• Lessons have been presented to individual children on multiplication bead board, subtraction strip board, stamp game, golden beads

• The kids continued right along with their individualized spelling programs and did a great job with their new words this week

• In cultural, we're building off the First Great Lesson presentation they received before Thanksgiving break, and launching an exploration of space topics: 

  • We're reading about the story of the universe as a group during peace lessons and exploring books about space during reading times. 

  • Everyone had a presentation on their "Cosmic Address," which helps to orient them to their place as part of the universe. We discussed how we would give directions to an alien to help them find exactly where we are located (within the Universe, within the Milky Way galaxy, within the Solar System, on the planet Earth, in the continent of North America, in the country of the United States, in the South Atlantic region of the United States, in the state of North Carolina, in the town of Davidson, on S. Main St., at Davidson Green School.) This lesson is a great conceptual extension from their ongoing thank you letter work, and also prepares them for further studies of geography, as it helps cement their understanding of place in relation to where they are. 

  • We've discussed the elements of the solar system and dug into planet research on Thursday. We talked about the Pluto classification controversy and the children completed research at their own level, either by drawing and labeling the planets of our solar system, or drawing a single planet and writing some of the most interesting facts about it! 

  • Some of our 2nd and 3rd graders have also chosen to complete a second research activity, learning more about the Milky Way galaxy. 

• James completed his map of Africa and chose to color each country with the flag of that country, it was absolutely phenomenal to see it! 

• We also had a multiplication lesson with golden beads! 

• We're getting into the holiday spirit and in our limited downtime, several students have been enjoying making paper snowflakes and decorations for the classroom! 

I think that's everything for now!!

Ms. Katie