Oddly a book on my shelf in the classroom sparked the interest of several students. The book is named Mary, Bloody Mary about Queen Mary, sister of Queen Elizabeth. Ironically over the weekend I came across a book about the war of wits between Queen Mary and her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth. We discussed the history of King Henry and his quest for a son. We then chatted about the lengthy reign of Queen Elizabeth and how she affected upon the country and history. The kids also did not understand why it was such a big deal that not only that she reigned for so long (44 yrs) but lived a long life (almost 70 yrs). We spoke about life expectancy in those days and how blessed the kids are nowadays to have such good sanitation and be able to eat healthy and get shots to keep them well. It was a truly enlightening conversation!
In math the students are mastering mulitplying double digit numbers by double digits. Wednesday we will begin triple numbers by double and I foresee a test by next Wednesday over the concept. I will keep you updated.
In science we continue to classify types of living organisms. We are currently growing fungi in the classroom in secret dark spaces...eeeewwww and have discussed vascular vs nonvascular plants and seeds vs spores. The students will learn about animal life cycles and the key vocabulary will be: trait, heredity, gene, life cycle, direct development and metamorphosis.
In reading we will be reading the trade book Helen Keller. We are going to study the extraordinary life of Helen Keller and we will watch The Miracle Worker. We have also been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's On the Banks of Plum Creek. This is all tied into our unit on biographies.
BIG oooops on my part. Last week when I gave the Wordly Wise test I did not give the WW spelling portion therefore tomorrow I will give Lesson #2 spelling portion. I also have mentioned that WW will be rotated with a formal spelling list however per my lesson plans I had scheduled this to be the week of WW#3 and next Tuesday to be the WW#3 test and then will begin the rotation with formal spelling. So please be aware that you will see WW this week, test next Tuesday and then a list will go home for spelling next week.
In history we continue to outline the first Chapter over ancient North American civilizations. At the end of this week the class will begin to make salt dough to make individual Texan salt dough relief maps which we will work on next week.
Please make sure to be checking your child's binder. Since there are no longer Friday take-home folders and all work is filed away please be checking for graded work in the binder along with updates in their agendas.
13 years ago