Putting Special Sounds to Song

Writing-  I always love listening to the kids read their writing assignments!  The class and I made a little semicircle of chairs, and attentively listened as each child read their stories.  Because of last week's field trip, we had two stories to read... and they just love sharing them aloud!
 
Spelling- We reviewed the two special sounds "ch" and "tch".  The students kept getting the letters of "tch" mixed up, so I made up a song to help!  The class sang it, danced it, and even made a video.  I don't think they will forget the ways to spell that sound!  We then used letter tiles to work on the words from this week's list.



History- In history class, we discussed the last chapter, and then continued reading about the evil Roman emperor, Nero.  The class was really enthralled with the story of how he partied while Rome burned.  They couldn't believe that, in order to keep the people of Roman from focusing their anger on him, he lied and told them that the Christians set the fire.  We talked about times that people do this type thing, on a smaller scale.  The class will be learning more of the persecution of Christians during this time in their at-home reading.

Agriculture- Today, the class was able to go and spend time with the new baby goats!  They played with them, cuddled them, and fed them a bottle of fresh goat's milk.  They even were able to learn the steps involved in milking goats... and each took turns milking Greta!

Math- In math today, we talked about estimation.  For a group of young children who really like to be right, this was a difficult concept to grasp!  They desperately wanted to count everything, and to be exact.  We discussed techniques that can be used to help estimate, such as counting a small section and then using that knowledge to extrapolate an answer.

Science-  In science, the class has been learning about habitats.  Today, they talked about basic needs, comparing the needs of wild animals, pets, and humans.  They were surprised to see that the needs of the three groups are essentially the same!  They zeroed in on shelter.  The class talked about different homes that animals build, including nests for birds, dens for foxes, and lodges for beavers.  They even watched a short clip where a man dove down and went inside a beaver lodge!   The kids will be talking more about basic needs next week, and will be drawing a floor plan of their home for class.  This will aid the discussion of shelters and needs!

Language Arts- The class reviewed contractions today, which is a lesson that we previously covered in class.  We talked about regular and irregular contractions, and wrote many examples on the board.  We also discussed the next type of sentence in our grammar lesson:  questions.  They are doing such a great job pointing out statements, commands, and questions!  Our lesson on the types of sentences led to an excellent discussion on manners.  I explained that, although "Get me cereal, please," uses "please", it is not the most polite way to get cereal.  Forming a question is always more polite!  We took turns changing commands into polite sentences.  This wasn't exactly part of the grammar lesson, but hopefully it will make for happier breakfasts!

Poetry-  The kids recorded "Mr. Nobody" today!  They worked on illustrations that will be compiled into their very last poetry video.  I should have them ready very soon!

We reviewed all of our lessons for today with a little treasure game.  The kids had to answer questions to jump their way to the treasure chest!