What better way to learn about the lunar phases than to each become the earth! Children closed their eyes and the moon revolved around them.  As they looked at the moon each time, they first saw a little more and more of the sunlight being reflected off the moon (waxing phase)  until it became a full moon and then saw less and less (waning phase) as it became the new moon.

 

 
 
 












We also added some moon vocabulary words to our journals and enjoyed reading moon and space books.

Math-strategies to add double digit numbers while solving story problems.  Children first add the "tens" from the two numbers, then the "ones" and then put them together,  While this may seem to take longer than the traditional algorithm of "carry over", this is developmentally how children should be solving these.  It builds a deeper understanding of place value and mental computation.

Here is one strategy for subtraction.  You can see they are using this same idea of subtracting first the tens and then the ones.  This works well when they do not need to "borrow" from the tens place. 

Finishing our fabric wreaths.

Classroom fun-decorating snowman sugar cookies.  Less is not best apparently for kids when it comes to icing and toppings!

Thanks to our class parents, volunteers and to all who donated toppings.

Welcome to our newest classmate:)

What better way to wrap up our rotation of You Skills with Mrs. Nelson than with a Super Chill with guided meditation.  Ask you children about the candy store, the bubble gum bubble and the toy store....

Have a fabulous winter break!

Our week started off with a presentation by two sixth graders about the compost shed.  Part of their presentation was this video about composting.  As you know, we are working hard at CCS to reduce our waste.  Our compost shed should produce enough compost to fill our school gardens!  

Quizzing each other on v-e (magic e) words during Word Study

Reader's Theater-larger groups, longer stories.

Holiday Traditions:

Mr. Bianchi stets up trains in the library

Holiday wreath project-great for learning how to tie!

Sharing of Family Holiday Traditions

Weekly You Skills with Mrs Nelson on "Zones of Regulation"

Sorting feelings into the zones

Ask your child how learning about the zones can help us be "ready to learn".