G1 students are going to the Tokyo Science Museum on Tuesday, November 26th for a Science field trip focusing on sound and light. We will leave UST at 9:00 AM and return to school between 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM.
Tokyo Science Museum website: http://www.jsf.or.jp/
Are you ready for the field trip?
Please help your child bring these items to school on the day of the field trip:
- Orange UST shirt (P.E. shirt)
- TWO snacks and regular lunch
*Please pack one snack for the morning and one snack for the afternoon. We will eat an early snack at school before we leave 8:45 - 9:00 AM. Lunch is at the site 11:00 - 11:30 AM. When we return to school, students will eat their afternoon snack 2:15 - 2:30 PM.
- Water bottle
- Restroom Towel
* Students will bring their backpacks on the field trip. Inside they will have their lunch, water bottle, and restroom towel. All folders will be left at school.
Field Trip cost per student - ¥450
*This includes admission price for students + highway/parking fees included
UST Read-a-thon
November 11th - November 24th
Please help your child bring their Read-a-thon reading log and
money to school on Monday, November 25th.
Writing
Descriptive Writing
For the next couple of weeks we will focus on descriptive writing. Students learned that when you write a descriptive paragraph you use your five senses to create a picture in the reader's mind (taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight).
As a class, we started the unit by brainstorming a list of describing words. We will continue to add to this list throughout the unit and students will be able to use these words to help them complete their writing tasks.
Reading
Story Elements - Readers Meet the Characters in Our Books
Our class learned that readers get to know their characters by identifying what the characters do and talking about their actions, likes, and dislikes. Students also practiced getting to know characters by thinking about how the characters change from the beginning to the end of the story. We also looked for patterns in characters' actions and predicted what the characters would do next in the story.
Math
Shapes
Fourths
At the beginning of the week our class practiced fourths (quarters). They divided shapes into fourths (squares, rectangles, and circles) and chose four different colors. They practiced saying, "One fourth of the _____ is _____!" (Ex. One fourth of the rectangle is pink!).
Solid Shapes
Students were also introduced to these solid shapes: cube, rectangular prism, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, and cone. We created shape posters for each new shape and talked about faces, edges, and vertices. Students explored the shapes using shape blocks, practicing the names and properties of the solid shapes. They compared the shapes and discussed if they can stack, roll, and/or slide.
Math Vocabulary
Fourths Quarters Solid shapes 3D shapes | Cone Pyramid Sphere Cylinder Cube | Rectangular Prism Faces Edges Vertex Vertices |
Science
Changing Sound - Volume, Pitch
This week we reviewed what we've learned about volume and pitch. Students were introduced to a new instrument called a kalimba. We also read and discussed informational text about animal ears and string instruments. Students learned that large objects tend to vibrate slower than small objects and high-pitched sounds come from objects that vibrate rapidly.
Animal Ears and Hearing: Each animal has structures for receiving sound.
- Horses can move their ears toward a sound.
- Foxes use their ears to listen for soft sounds and hunt for small animals.
- A kudu listens for lions and leopards, then runs away when it hears them.
- Elephants have the biggest ears of all! They can hear other elephants far away.
- You can tell seals and sea lions apart by looking at their ears.
- Fish don't have ears! Instead the lateral line on their side senses vibrations to help them detect other animals.
- Long, thick strings vibrate slowly and the sound is a low pitch.
- Short, thin strings vibrate fast and the sound is a high pitch.
Students also used spoon-gongs to investigate the question, "How does sound travel from the source to the receiver?" They learned that when you hit the spoon, the spoon vibrates and makes a sound, so the spoon is the sound source. The vibrations move to the string and then to the cup. Finally, the sound is received by the ear because our ears are sound receivers.
Spelling
Long a: ai, ay, a_e
Mystery Reader
Have a wonderful weekend!
- Ms. Allison