Meet Buddy the Elf

Yesterday an elf appeared in our classroom with an envelope. Of course this caused a lot of commotion and energy in our class.  The envelope read top secret and to open at 1o'clock, which happens to be our social studies time.  I wish I could share with the contents of that envelope but we have been sworn to keep it a secret.  What I can tell you is that we voted in class and the kids have decided to name our elf Buddy.  Buddy will be bringing us missions a few times a week for the next several weeks.  Our mission has something to do with learning about customs from around the world.  I probably told you too much already.  

In math we have started to learn strategies for subtracting.  As you can see our lessons are very similar to those used for teaching addition.  We are building upon their knowledge and skills with each lesson.  Today I gave the class a timed math assessment and I am so happy to report that every child out performed their best score.  They all earned a homework pass.  I'm so proud of their effort, I'm very pleased with the progress I see in them becoming fluent with addition and subtraction.

This week in Literacy our essential question was, how are offspring like their parents?  We read several great pieces of information text about a variety of animals.  We compared these text and worked on writing responses about how the animals are the same and different.  We used the chrome books to write our responses, this becoming easier each time we use them.

In Science this week Mrs. Wells had the opportunity to skype with someone from the Philadelphia Zoo to discuss the water conservation project that she will be working on with both classes. Both classes were present for the skype presentation.  We learned about all the animals that are included in the project and some of the things that we need to do in order to complete the project. Students asked questions during the skype session.  The classes have chosen The Golden Lion Tamran as the animal that will be the focus of their project.  I'm sure the kids will share more details with you in the coming weeks.

Have a wonderful weekend!