Last Friday, May 3rd, we learned about beavers in Four Winds (our parent taught Science/Nature program). The children watched the puppet show and a slide show about beavers and muskrats. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and went outside to build dams like beavers as well as try to gnaw through carrots and pretzel rods like beavers do. Finally we were treated to “guest appearances” by a beaver and muskrat when two of our own students put on all the necessary equipment to turn into these busy, interesting animals.
As fate would have it, when I was out walking on Monday night, I noticed some movement in a stream across the street from my house. It so happens a beaver has moved in and was very busy making his dam. The stream has grown already flooding the nearby land. Luckily there are no houses or roads in danger, so hopefully he’ll be able to stay. Enjoy some of the pictures I took of my neighborhood beaver.
As part of our celebration week of National Poetry Month, children had to search for many different types of poetry. If they found a favorite, they had the opportunity to record them on a Voice Thread. The following Voice Thread is a shared one with Mrs. Bonfigli’s class. Enjoy!
During our poetry study this week, we learned how to write Wish Poems. Like Haikus, Wish poems follow a “recipe” telling the writer which type of words go in each line. Please enjoy listening to our Wish poems.
This week during our celebration of National Poetry Month, the students wrote and illustrated their own Haikus following the “recipe” of 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line, and 5 syllables in the last line. We also enjoyed reading haikus by Jack Prelutsky in If Not For The Cat.
We’ve been learning about our respiratory system this week. Today we made models of what happens when we breathe. Our diaphragm is a very important muscle that is part of our respiratory system. Enjoy our video of how it works:
The technology has really been humming in our room. Please take a minute to check out the children’s blogs (in the links below) as well as leave them a comment. We added our first post on Friday to introduce ourselves to our readers. In class, we’ve been working on the skills of Summarizing and Determining Importance. As a way to move beyond a paragraph summary, students have been using a technology tool to summarize their guided reading work. Some students are working on a Voice Thread and others are working on a Photo Story. We hope to add these pieces to our blogs soon so you can experience some of the tools we’ve been trying out.
Today aliens from all over galaxies far, far away have landed at MBS. Look close, these are special aliens! To unite our study of symmetry and our Solar System unit, we made symmetrical aliens. We had to think about which way we would fold and cut out our aliens. After we had the body, we had to be careful with our decorations so they remained symmetrical as well. Next week, we will be learning about the planets and we can decide which planet we think our alien may be from. We will also be using our aliens during writing both for procedural (how to) writing and narrative writing. Enjoy these sample pictures of some of our new inhabitants!
We also shared this great website about beavers:
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