Week 19 - Planning for our Class Play
/This week was a little out of the ordinary because Ms. Susan was gone for a few days and several of our classmates had to be absent, but these students showed how responsible and flexible they can be in all the different circumstances. The Sea Lions joined the Otters for most of the day on Monday. They got to be helper buddies for some of the Otters and enjoyed supporting them with their writing and math work.
We continued writing, editing, and illustrating our own folktale stories, and some students started working on a second story. Henry finished writing the script for our class folktale play, and the Sea Lions were excited to begin choosing roles and planning what we’ll need for the play. We brainstormed lists of props, costumes, and scenery we want to include, and we also began painting a background scene of the forest.
In Math, we began a study of fractions this week. We started with a basic review of fractions, practiced naming fraction relationships between different shape blocks (ex. the triangle block is ⅙ of a hexagon block), and discussed what the numerator and denominator are referencing in a fraction. We also have been learning about equivalent fractions, practicing using multiplication and division to create equivalent fractions, and learning which ones are written in simplest form. Next week, I hope to do some activities with recipes as a way to connect fractions to the real world, and we’ll also move into comparing fractions with different denominators.
The Sea Lions finished reading our book club novel this week. We held a final group discussion about From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and we enjoyed sharing our favorite parts and laughing about the humorous moments from the whole story. For our next round of book club reading, we’ll have students break into a couple of separate book clubs where they can choose a novel to read and discuss together in a smaller group.
