Hope your weekend was relaxing! I admit that my goal to write comments at the end of the week and then again at the beginning of the week was too lofty for me. My apologies to those of you who expected a blog update on Friday. I am going to stick with once a week and see if I am any better!
Last week started feeling more like "school" is supposed to feel. I don't think I mentioned this before, but if your kids come home talking about So Emo, they are talking about our social emotional curriculum. This week in So Emo we talked about 8 to Great Highway 4: Feel All Your Feelings. This was a touchy subject for some since so often in our society we are told to suppress our feelings. I learned so much about my class this week and have so much empathy for the many things they are going through not only in the classroom but outside in the real world. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a mentor to them and provide a safe place for them for seven hours every day. Ask your son or daughter about Giraffe Language!!
Our language and math classes are going great. If your student is not in my class for either of those subjects and you would like to contact their teacher, please let me know. In my language class this week we have been reading Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. The first line of the book begins... "My sweat smells like peanut butter." Obviously with a line like that, the kids were immediately engaged! We spent the week learning how to spot information while reading, listing character traits, and recapping what we read. Students were given tools on how to organize information using Venn diagrams and they wrote compare and contrast paragraphs about two of the main characters, Jeremy and Lizzy.
My math class still included the prealgebra, algebra and adv. algebra kids. We spent the week reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of integers (positive and negative numbers) and learned about real numbers, rational and irrational numbers. On Monday the pre-algebra kids will officially start Direct Instruction with Christine. The algebra class will stay with me. Be ready to move fast! We have a lot to learn!
Our website project went on the back burner last week as I realized the snail pace we were going with it wouldn't change until we have computers in our room. As soon as this happens, we will continue the project. We are still working on the Rome vs US history project. Last week we compared Rome's downfall with some of the things happening in the United States today. This week we will work on creating a perfect world. We also started a nutrition science/math project. Part 1 of this project involves writing down what you eat for seven days. I sent the students home with a packet on Thursday that includes 7 counting calories logs to be filled out each day for everything they eat. Please remind your student to fill these out as their information is vital to completing the project. Last week we learned how all food, whether it is sugar, fat or protein gets stored as fat cells if it is not used up. This week we will investigate hands on what a cell looks like and how food travels to all of our body parts.
A quick thank you to Julian's mom who stepped in and is teaching an amazing cultural dance class as one of the Friday Experts. Those who got to experience it had a great time. Once you get to know me you will find I am quite clutzy. I now know how to fall with grace! Anyone else still sore from crab walking?
Along with their nutrition packets, I sent home another important paper that I hope your student showed you. If this isn't timely enough, it is an announcement of our schoolwide junk food policy. I personally have noticed a difference in the energy level of kids in my class who had sodas and sugary foods for breakfast and lunch. Please send your kids to school with healthy food and snacks. Sodas and candy in my class will be confiscated until after school.
Last but not least... I am looking for a room parent or two for our class. An email is going out this week with the specifics. If you are available I would truly appreciate it.
Looking forward to another great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment