In reading we are currently engaged in an inquiry into the various types of thinking we do when reading a text. The kids have been stopping and jotting notes throughout our read alouds to keep track of the sorts of mental responses that are helping them make sense of the story. Soon we'll begin classifying these to see that when we work to create meaning from a text we continually ask questions, make connections, generate predictions, assess characters, and much, much more. These categories are not meant to guide the kids into thinking "Oh, I need to make a connection on this page" but to help them see that reading involves so much more than simply calling out words.
In science we have wrapped up our inquiry into solids, liquids, and gases. There was a healthy amount of freezing, melting, and evaporating going on in the classroom. Oh, and condensation too.
In writing we have just begun a new inquiry into fiction writing. We spent the first work of this unit reading books and author interviews to find out where authors get their ideas for writing. From this each of the kids was able to create a sizable list of story ideas for future writing. We'll next turn our attention to the role of a plot in fiction writing and then use this concept to learn how to create pre-writing notes to guide our writing. There really is so much great energy during writing workshop each and every day. The kids love to use their imagination to create new things. It's definitely one of our favorite parts of the day.
Finally, in math we've been exploring non-standard and standard units of measure. Our first standard unit of measure was centimeters. In the past I've started with customary units of measure (inches, feet, etc) but this year I've definitely found great value in going metric first. One big reason is that it's so much easier to use. The kids have enjoyed estimating and measuring items all around the room - including their bodies.
Here are the pics...
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