Week 14 - Student Presentations on Oregon Geographic Regions
/Our days have been busy in our Sea Lions classroom! The focus of last week was creating slideshow presentations with the information each student learned about the geographic region of Oregon they researched. We learned how to search for photos on the internet, save copies of photos on the iPad, and then insert them into the slides. Students also learned how to edit the format, colors, and fonts in their slides. Those who finished their presentations early spent time doing touch-up painting on our topographic map. The Sea Lions are all so proud of their work on the map and on their presentations! They spent lots of time and focused energy on these projects, and they enjoyed showing each other what they learned. On Thursday, each student had a chance to present their slideshow to the class and to our guest visitors (Ms. Ren and Mr. Mark). We practiced being respectful audience members, and took turns asking and answering questions.
We continued working on fiction stories during Writer’s Workshop. One student finished their story (a spin-off version of a Mo Willems “Pigeon” book), and another student is almost finished with writing theirs as well. We finished our chapter book read-aloud of Poppy and Rye, but decided we’ll wait until after winter break before starting a new novel. We also spent the week reading and discussing a book about poverty, homelessness, refugees, and human rights. We tied it into the work we’ve been doing to collect food donations for our community as well as the art squares we designed with ideas of what the world needs. The Sea Lions continued reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and held a strong discussion in their book club.
In our math lessons, the Sea Lions continued practicing 4-digit multiplication and we learned some new games to help us practice those multiplication skills. We also started exploring multiplication of a number with a multiple of 10 (ex. 348 x 40), exploring how multiplying by 10 means moving everything up to a higher place value / adding a zero to the end. Ms. Susan also has been taking time to practice the basic multiplication facts one-on-one with each student.
Favorite parts of the day for the Sea Lions are usually outside choice time and project exploration time. They enjoy being with their Otter friends and having time to explore and learn with the games, building materials, or art supplies they like best. We still like to be outside when we can, but we have also found ways to have lots of fun indoors when the weather is too rainy or cold.
