Next Friday, June 15th G1 students will have a field trip to the Edo Tokyo Museum for our Social Studies unit comparing past (then) and present (now).
Social Studies Focus: Our Past, Our Present
Big Question: How does life change throughout history?
I apologize for the late notice. We were waiting for the new UST bus driver to be trained. He started this week, so we are able to move forward with field trip plans for this month.
If you are interested in being a chaperone for this field trip, please let me know by Monday, May 11th.
Field Trip Details
Cost per child (highway/parking fees): ¥300
Please send in your child's field trip money by Wednesday, June 13th.
Leave school - 10:00 AM
Leave field trip site to return to school - 1:00 PM
Our snack time will be earlier on this day. Students will eat snack at 9:30 AM and we'll leave school at 10:00 AM. Students will eat lunch at the site.
Is your child ready for the field trip?
- paid ¥300
- orange field trip shirt (P.E. uniform)
- water bottle
- hand towel
- lunch (no yogurts or messy foods please)
- snack
- backpack
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This week during Reading students continued working with their Reading Club groups to research their animal topic. Each group met with another group to share what they had written on their post-it notes last week. After sharing their notes, both groups worked together to find information that was similar. We learned that readers talk about how text is the same and different.
Example:
My topic: Dolphins
My friend's topic: Ants
My post-it note says dolphins eat fish.
My friend's post it note says ants eat bugs and sweet things.
These ideas are similar because both talk about what animals eat.
Students also took time to read more nonfiction books about their topic and think about questions they still have about their topic. We learned that readers ask questions to better understand their topic and search for the answers in the books they're reading. Each group used post-it notes to write their questions and mark the pages with their questions. We also discussed that scientists ask questions and share their hypothesis to try and answer the question before they research and find the correct answer. Students practiced sharing their questions and discussing possible answers to their questions using the information they already know.
Persuasive Writing / K3 Book Page
Students published their persuasive pieces this week and shared them with the class. Students also worked on creating pages for our Welcome to G1 book for K3 students. Each student wrote a page telling about a different part of G1 (Math, Reading, Writing, Art, Japanese, uniform, etc.) and used a sentence starter to help connect this writing task to what we've learned about persuasive writing. Each student picked a topic they enjoy at school, then shared an opinion about first grade and supported their opinion with reasons. We hope this book will help K3 students learn about G1 and feel excited to start a new grade next year!
Example:
I think first grade is ___________ because we have Math everyday!
I think first grade is ___________ because you learn so much during Science!
Money
Last week students were introduced to money and learned different songs to help them remember the name and value of each coin. During morning meeting, our class has been practicing how to use addition to find the total amount of money.
Example:
1 quarter, 1 penny, 2 dimes
25 cents + 1 cent + 20 cents = 46 cents
This week students were introduced to numbers 40 - 120. Students practiced how to read and write the numbers and show the numbers using place value materials (hundreds, tens, ones) as well as compare, order, and complete number patterns. We will start addition and subtraction to 120 next week.
Examples:
___ is greater than ___ ___ is less than ___ ___ is 5 more than 42 ___ is 4 less than 60 8 more than 55 is ___ | 89, 90, 91, 92, ___, ___, 95 40, 42, 44, ___, 48, ___, 52 75, ___, 65, 60, ___, 50 82: 8 tens, 2 ones 115: 1 hundred, 1 ten, 5 ones |
50 fifty 60 sixty 70 seventy 80 eighty | 90 ninety 100 one hundred 110 one hundred ten 120 one hundred twenty |
Our focus in Science this week was light. Students learned that there are natural light sources (sun, fire) and man-made light sources (lightbulbs, flashlights, phones). We used flashlights to investigation light and shadow and learned that a shadow is made when light is blocked. We also used a wood block, a plastic bag, a piece of paper to learn that different materials allow different amounts of light to go through them (opaque, translucent, transparent). Students ended the week exploring how to use mirrors to redirect a light beam and learned about reflections.
On Friday G1 classes went outside to explore how shadows can be made with the light from the sun. They also used mirrors to redirect the light from the sun onto trees and walls.
Science Vocabulary
light source
light receiver (eyes)
opaque
translucent
transparent
reflect
reflection
Next week we will start our last Science unit on plants and the environment. Our class will plant seeds and observe how the seeds grow for the next two weeks. Students will draw pictures of their observations and label their drawings with new Science vocabulary words (skin, root, shoot, leaf, etc.).
Timeline Projects were due Friday, June 8th. These projects will be on display in our classroom and students will present their timelines to the class on Monday during Social Studies.
This week during Social Studies our class learned more about past vs. present. We read information and talked about photos to compare and contrast school, communities, communication, housing, laundry, transportation, and much more! Students brainstormed what the future could be like and how things will continue to change!
I hope you have a great weekend!
- Ms. Allison