Carney’s Crew News and Updates
Hi All,
It’s hard to believe that February break is just a week away. Like always, we have been so busy with new learning in our classroom.
We have been enjoying clips from the Olympics in the morning after students get checked in and then again during snack time. So far we have been able to watch snowboarding, hockey, skiing, figure skating, luge, and the skeleton! It has been such a great opportunity to further connect our learning in the classroom to the real world. The Olympics have also been a great connection to all of the work we have been doing on growth mindset and perseverance.
Here are some of the things happening in our classroom:
Math- We wrote down the fastest times from the skeleton and luge races as fractions to help us learn about tenths and hundredths of a second. We also converted the distance that the racer runs at the start of the race from meters to centimeters. In addition, we discussed how the luge track was divided up into segments, and the racers times were being reported for each segment. Students very quickly made the connection to fractions and recognized the track as the whole! They begged me to do “Olympic Math” all day!
Along with “Olympic Math” we have learned about unit fractions, parts of a whole, and how to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators.
Writing- Students have been so focused on writing their “hamburger” paragraphs which include a topic sentence, four supporting details/facts/examples, and a closing sentence. We have also worked hard to learn and apply new strategies to our introductions and conclusions, and add text features to our writing. Next week we will peer edit, revise, and then have a small author celebration.
Reading- We have been focusing very heavily on distinguishing between the topic and main idea of an article and/or text. Students have enjoyed reading from Newsela.com, an online current news site for kids. We are also practicing writing about the main idea using supporting details and evidence from the text.
Science- We started our Land and Water science unit and have begun to learn about some of the ways that land and water interact. We completed our first Mystery Science lesson on volcanoes. Students did a coordinate grid mapping activity to look at the patterns of volcanoes and determined whether or not a volcano could pop up in their backyard. Next week we will learn about weathering and erosion.
Unified Arts 3rd Quarter Schedule-
Monday- PE (sneakers please!)
Tuesday- Art
Wednesday- PE (sneakers please!)
Thursday- Art AND book exchange
Friday- Guidance
Other News and Upcoming Dates-
Conferences- March 5th and 6th. Visit the MBS homepage to sign up
February Break- February 26th -March 6th. Students return Wednesday, March 7th.
Please feel free to contact me anytime by email- kari.carney@colchestersd.org and/or school phone- 264-5867.
Happy Friday!
Mrs. Carney
