Dissecting Owl Pellets

We had quite an exciting week in our classroom! We were able to go to WCS and watch the Sterling House put on the play Pinocchio. The students did an excellent job being a supportive audience. St. Patrick's Day was quite exciting in the classroom. A leprechaun came to visit us. He changed things around in our classroom and made a mess. The students then worked in small groups to build Leprechaun traps. We left them up over night. Although we did not catch any sneaky leprechauns he did leave us some gold nuggets from his pot of gold!

Thanks to all the Four Winds volunteers. The students had a blast learning about Owls. They were able to dissect owl pellets and find the different bones of the animals that the owl had eaten. It was so interesting to be able to pull out skulls and rib bones and put them together. The students had a great time! Also, the students were able to listen to owl sounds and get some general information about owls and how they fly silently. At our afternoon Kiva, the students enjoyed sharing what they had learn.

We have had lots of hard work going on in the classroom as well. In Readers' Workshop the students are continuing to learn about how to read non-fiction books. This week we learned about pictures and captions and how to use them when reading non-fiction books. We will be wrapping this unit up next week. The students are really growing as independent readers. They really seem to look forward to their independent reading time.

In Math we worked on solving Penguin Word Problems. The students worked on the concepts such as addition and subtraction, counting by two's, and finding twice as many. The students are now putting their knowledge into practice and creating their own penguin problems. Also, this week we did some comparative measurement. Students used their life-sized penguins to measure what part of their body the penguin came up to. The students really have a interesting understanding of measurement and are able to put these skills into action!

In Writers' Workshop, we continue to work on our small moments pieces. This week we tried adding details to our stories, using descriptive language, and creating captivating beginnings! Our small moments stories are stories that focus on one part of an event. The students have enjoyed writing these kinds of narratives.

That wraps up our week! If you still need to sign up for a conference, please contact me by school phone or email. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.