UOI: This week we had a guest speaker, Mr. Jensen. Mr. Jensen is a social studies teacher in the middle and high school. He engaged the students in a conversation to discuss the many reasons humans explore. They also got to watch an amazing video about zombie ants in the Amazon.
The students also began looking at maps dating from 1030 to present day. Students observed and recorded ways maps have changed over time and thought about the reasons why.
Literacy: Everyone knows that in order to grow a plant you must first plant a seed. The children thought about how stories they write are much the same. You start with one small moment and build a story filled with action, dialogue, thinking and emotion from there, and by the end you have a juicy watermelon story.
In guided reading, students have begun to learn new words related to exploration. Additionally, they have begun to locate information in maps and diagrams, as well as, locate and record key information relating to a particular explorer.
Maths: The children began using the compass rose to map out trails on a grid. They also began to identify coordinates on a map grid as well. Next week, they will have time to further practice these skills and create their own map that will culminate many mathematical skills they have been working on over the last few weeks.
The class discussed the commutative property in multiplication where the factors can be switched and the product will remain the same. For example, 7 x 5 = 5 x 7 because no matter which way you multiple the numbers you get an answer of 35. We further discussed that if this is true, we could write A x B = B x A to represent any factor combination.
Fact families were used to show students the inverse relationship between multiplication and division.
The class discussed the commutative property in multiplication where the factors can be switched and the product will remain the same. For example, 7 x 5 = 5 x 7 because no matter which way you multiple the numbers you get an answer of 35. We further discussed that if this is true, we could write A x B = B x A to represent any factor combination.
Fact families were used to show students the inverse relationship between multiplication and division.