Ask Me About Thursday and Friday, March 23 and 24, 2017

We had a great discussion about these two amazing birds.  We compared the birds, zooming in specifically on their external features.  Ask me to tell you how these two birds are different and the same, and how this helps them hunt for food.

In math Thursday, we worked with a number factory path where children started with a number but then needed to add or subtract 1, 2, 10 or 20.  They had a numberline and 100's chart available, but most of the children we doing this in their head and writing their numbers quickly on their whiteboards.  Today we worked with subitizing and decomposing to 8.  The children were shown arrangements of dots quickly, and they wrote the number they thought they saw on their whiteboard.  We discussed what they saw and how they were able to know how many without counting.  Most likely they are seeing some common arrangements then counting-on or adding without really even thinking about it.  They are very accurate!  Then we practiced quickly writing number sentences to show all the ways to decompose the numbers. 
Thursday, we continued our discussion of producers and consumers and talked about maple syrup production.  We took the opportunity to visit Vermont and read a story called Sugaring by Jessie Haas.  The story is about a little girl and her grandfather collecting sap from maple trees and and boiling it in the sugar house. We took a quick trip around Vermont and colored our postcard.  
Thursday we went to the fifth grade plays in the morning.  We were so impressed with the performance and the play that was written by the students.  The children had to sit for an hour, and I know I am biased but they really did a great job sitting and listening, even though the content was over their heads.  But they really enjoyed seeing their patrols and friends doing an amazing job of performing.
We continue to check in on the eagles.  The First Lady was doing a lot of squawking this afternoon, although I am not sure why, however the eggs could hatch anytime now.  I'm trying to peek in on them before I show the children just to be sure nothing sad has happened that I might need more information about before sharing with the children.  They are very interested in them already, and really they haven't seen much but sitting around.  Once the eggs hatch, things get really interesting!  

Enjoy the weekend!  
Miss Wolfe