What fun to talk to parents and grandparents this week to learn how life was different when they were young. Many grandparents shared how they walked to school and came home each day for lunch. Almost everyone interviewed noted the absence of computers, cell phones, and tablets and the use of chalkboards in classrooms. Sometimes clothing was different, popular toys differed, and in fact less toys or home made toys or playthings were noted. Certainly we could not carry on the remote learning without the current technology! We read books and watched videos about life long ago and compared and contrasted with today. Next week we move on to Goods and Services.
In science we dove into learning about the moon and then the sun, our closest star. Watching footage of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut on the moon, was engaging, and seeing a launch simulation depicting how the different parts of the rocket fall away as it is boosted into space was helpful in understanding the mission. "The Eagle has landed" and "One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" were two famous quotes we heard in the videos. 
The kids learned why the moon shines (reflected light from the sun), what the moon phases are, and what the moon is made up of. We learned that the sun is a flaming sphere of gases, that it is so big that 1 million earths could fit inside it, that all the planets orbit it, and that it provides light, heat, and energy for living things to grow and survive. Next week we will move on to study stars!
Writing 'All About' papers showed off our little experts this week. The kids always love sharing their writing and hearing it read aloud. Some of the topics kids chose to write all about were famous people (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr.), interesting animals (dogs, bears, bunnies), symbols such as the USA flag, magical creatures such as unicorns, and many more topics of interest. Next week we will write one more All About along with another form of poetry.
Math work is centering all around place value. The kids have been counting tens and ones, identifying which numbers are in the hundreds, tens, or ones place, and becoming familiar with numbers to 120. Next week we will solve addition problems by adding tens followed by adding tens and ones.
In phonics we focused on R-Controlled vowels and the unique sounds those patterns make. We also worked with syllabication, learning how to decode longer words by dividing them into syllables based on the number of vowels in the word. Lots of song based videos to practice with makes phonics fun!
The classroom is all packed up, the children's bags have been picked up or will be by today. If you were unable to pick up your child's belongings, contact the school because they will have another date coming up.
Today is virtual field day! Check out the games and activities and links on our google classroom under the Friday assignment. You can even post a photo in the provided link there.
Last Friday we wished Gwen a Happy Birthday and all sang to her on our Google Meet!
Have a wonderful weekend and play those games!
Mrs. Dagley
