This past week was spirit week in D’vash. Crazy hats, costumes and pajamas abounded and we enjoyed them all. The all-school Purim megillah reading and carnival were also highlights of the week.
In science, we completed our study of balls and ramps with a fun final exploration.
This week in Writer’s Workshop, we began to write “How-to Books.” In these books, our student authors choose something they know “how to” do and then teach their reader, step-by-step how to do them. Students chose a wide variety of activities that they know how to do including playing guitar and chess, making hamentaschen and frosting a cake. This unit is designed to go along with our study of non-fiction books.
In Reader’s Workshop, we explored some of the differences between fiction and non-fiction this week and as a class, made a Venn diagram of the these differences as well as the similarities. The diagram includes the fact that fiction books generally tell a made-up story with a beginning, middle and end and whereas non-fiction books contain true facts or information and do not have to be read from beginning to end. Non-fiction books often have features such as glossaries and indices which are generally not found in fiction.
In math, we completed our unit on time and began a unit on measurement. This week we focused on non-standard units of measurement such as cubes and paper clips. The children explored measuring various classroom items with our non-standard measuring tools. Next week, we will think more about the importance of using standard measuring tools, in our case inches and feet.
Wishing everyone a shavua tov,
Hamorah Joanne