Unpack the flashlights!

On the hunt for translucent materials!

Our Properties of Light study sent us on a hunt throughout the school on Friday, as we searched for materials that were either opaque, translucent, or transparent. Shining a flashlight on the materials was the proof that sealed the deal - did light pass through completely, somewhat, or not at all? They found solid walls and furniture, transparent windows, and translucent sheer curtains, frosted glass, and more. The final finds were tables covered with plastic tablecloths. Would light pass through the tablecloths at all? In the blink of an eye, half the class dove under the tables to see if light came through  (it did) - I hold the full moon responsible for the mayhem! 

Windows are transparent!

Frosted glass- translucent!

Lunch tables - opaque!

We found more frosted glass!

Wood- opaque!

 

Transparent!

Translucent!

Translucent!

Lego wall - opaque!

Hallway door window- transparent!

 Making 'stained glass' window pictures was a fun way to explore translucent materials, and did take some patience- that Peel& Press sticky wrap can be frustrating! The results look great though!

Tissue paper creations!

Our translucent window art!

 Our Dark Box experiment was a lot of fun too. After watching a Mystery Doug Science episode, we did the activity of making a dark box with eye holes at one end and a top that could be closed or lifted gradually to let in light. The kids taped a sticky note picture inside and then had a friend peek in when the top was closed. Could they see anything? Then as they gradually let light in, their partner would exclaim when the picture was revealed!

Ready to look?

Can't see anything...yet!

It's always nice to get out the water paints once in a while. This week we painted our seasonal fall pictures and added woodland animals to it. 

Adding a finishing touch

Little artists!

Almost finished!

Nice concentration!

Add a little blue sky!

Love to paint!

My masterpiece!

Lots of detail!

We have been on a mission to learn new sight words, and playing sight word BINGO has been an engaging way to do that. Everyone is making great progress on words.

Sight word BINGO

Challenge words!

Everyone loves a game!

Here are a few of this week's centers:

Make a word pocket chart

Turkey poetry

 Look! My big sister came to read to us!

I'm excited to see her!

It's almost Thanksgiving and we are learning about how the holiday came about. Beginning with a Native American of the Patuxet tribe, we have read about the life of  Squanto (Tisquantum). We will continue to read and write about his life next week, and about his important relationship with the Pilgrims. Then we will discover how the Pilgrims survived in this new land. 

We will be making Thanksgiving scenes in shoe boxes (dioramas), so if you have any shoeboxes at home, please send them in. I have been saving them in the attic to have extras just in case. However if needed, I'll have a good excuse to head to DSW for some new shoes!

Fascinating life

It's a bright and sunny weekend- enjoy!
Mrs. Dagley 

   

Thank you Veterans!

Waving our flags!

Everyone loves a parade! Here are some excited kids waiting for our visiting veterans to come down the hall. It's always a moving event as we all honor those in our community that have served our country and fought for our freedom. We loved reading Veterans Heroes In Our Neighborhood which depicted men and women working in everyday jobs, but then revealed the same people in full uniform serving in a branch of the military back when they were younger. 

Here they come!

Finally the sun appeared! Right at 9:00 A.M. Monday we took a walk out doors and observed the very long shadows of trees, parking signs, and playground equipment. Then it was off to the tennis courts to have a friend trace our shadow in chalk. Later around noon, we went back out to observe any changes. Sure enough we saw that the sun's position in the sky had changed since 9:00 and our shadows were shorter and slanted at an angle. On the way back in, they had fun trying to chase and step on friend's shadows!

Ready to be traced!

Look how long our shadows are!

Tracing your shadow is fun!

Our small group literacy centers are always a hit. The kids love working on their own with a few friends and are honing their phonics, reading, and spelling skills at the same time. In ABC center the kids made words by blending consonants with 'word families'. 

Making words ending in ag, it, op, ug...

Spelling by isolating sounds within words

Finding sight words in poems

Reading and illustrating poems

"What strategies can I use to solve a math problem?" That is the question the kids have been asking themselves. In order to choose, they ned to be number detectives, think about the numbers in relation to each other, and then choose a strategy that is most efficient. If they see 6+7 they note that they are close together (best friends as Matt told us!). This is the perfect chance to use a doubles plus 1 strategy. If they see 2+9, changing the order of the addends is a good strategy. Much faster to count on from 9 than 2 (9+2). When working with teen numbers, making a ten is very fast, since we are all becoming experts in the 'Ten Plus' club!

Using ten frames to make a ten

Partner work

Discussing with partners if we should switch the order

Our book area library is all set up with the November theme of Thanksgiving, pilgrims, and Native Americans.  We even have a wooden replica of the Mayflower (which is about 100 years old, therefore the sails are long gone...). 

Lots of new non fiction to read

Indoor recess is quite busy as you can see by these photos. If the wind chill makes temps too cold (as determined by the nurses), we are inside. However with the shift in weather, it is a good idea to bundle up for outdoor recess and maybe leave a pair of gloves or mittens in school.

Legos are always a hit

Cool things in the Peaceful Place

Very organized!

More teeth are obligingly falling out! This week Mark was delighted when we sang the tooth song to him, and then Ivy was in the spotlight for a lost tooth. Kids are even comparing if one friend's pattern of teeth/no teeth matches theirs!

Homework has been looking good - I can see the increased effort, and the kids always like taking turns putting theirs up on the board to show it off. In class, we are focusing on digraphs (th, sh, ch) and words with short vowels that end in /ck/. 

Frosty air has arrived- stay warm!
Mrs. Dagley

Who can make a shadow?

Pop up shadow animals

We had some fun in science with shadows despite the rainy week. As we experimented with blocking light in order to cast a shadow, the kids fulfilled that universal urge to put their hands in front of the overhead projector light, only this time with animal shadow puppets! They also saw that as they moved their puppet closer to the source of light, their shadow got bigger and less defined. The next step was making a pop-up picture of an animal blocking sunlight and casting its black construction paper shadow. I'm hoping for some sun next week so we can cast our own shadows when blocking sunlight outside.

Look! A shadow!

Shadows on the beach

Casting shadows

Let's make our puppet shadows move

What happens if we move closer to the light?

 Listening to an online Mystery Science read-aloud, Light Up the Dark, helped us learn that in the absence of light, as in a cave, we cannot see anything. Next week we will use our Dark Box to experiment with trying to see a picture in total darkness and then with allowing degrees of light in.

Math games and activities have focused on using doubles facts to solve facts that are near a double (doubles plus one). Recognizing that 4+5 is near the double of 4+4 allows us to use the doubles fact and then add one more to solve 4+5. We then added 0,1, or 2 to a doubles fact. Finally we identified equations and dot representations that are equal and learned that the equal sign can be appropriate in different positions within a math expression such as: 6+1 = 4+3 = *******. Check out the photo:

Rows of equal sums

Math partners doubles work

 A book series we introduced this week features Max the duck. We identified character features after reading Duck at the Door. 

We also learned about bats, echolocation, diet, and nocturnal habits. Several friends shared bat facts with us after reading independently about them.

Thanks for reading to us

Great photo of a Flying Fox bat

 Centers this week offered an opportunity to spell color words as they searched for colored spider pictures throughout the room. Sorting and making words at the pocket chart, and reading a story on Starfall.com were other activities. We also have a roomful of word detectives who are finding our targeted sight words in books that they are reading, and finding words within words!

Making words with word families

Pocket chart sorting 

Spider search color words

Starfall reading

Cheering cues for spelling o-n-e!

Learning and practicing our 5 new sight words per week often involves a song to help us remember them, but for spelling 'ONE' we perform a cheer instead!

Lots of mystery kids appeared this week when many arrived in full costume! What excitement to greet each other in disguise!

Fun!

Captures the class energy level that day!

Captain America!

So exciting!

Happy Day!

Celtics and Swat team

All decked out!

Spiderman, Woody, and Buzz

The Book Fair visit was a success. It continues to be open through next Thursday. 

We sang Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay three times this week for lost teeth - Sofia, Jayden, and Evan! 

Next week there is no school on Wednesday - a professional development day for teachers. 

So happy to see the sun again, and the wind certainly did its part in adding to leaf piles to jump in!

                                                         Have a nice weekend,
                                                         Mrs. Dagley