Two Week Catch Up!

Welcome Back! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! Just a reminder- parent teacher conferences are next week! I am very excited to share your students' work with you. 

You will be receiving a confirmation paper in Monday's homework folders. See you soon! 

Here are a few things we worked on over the past few weeks. 

We have been doing many fun and interesting experiments in science while studying the phases of matter. Over the past two weeks, we learned and observed how matter changes phases. First, we looked at ice and dry ice over the course of one day. We've also learned about chemical reactions and how to identify when one has happened. To observe this, we activated glow sticks to see how a color is made, and combined vinegar and baking soda to see how the gas emitted can blow up a balloon. 

 We've talked about all the terms for matter changing, such as freezing, condensation, sublimation, and evaporation. To learn how these terms apply to real life situations, we observed condensation on mirrors, and turned liquid Kool-Aid into frozen popsicles. Our students have really been enjoying our science unit, and doing a great job engaging with the process of predicting and experimenting. 

In math, we've been working on skip counting by various numbers such as 2s, 5s, and 10s. To help us with fluency and speed with this skill, we play a game called count around. We choose a magic number to count up to, such as 25. Then, we stand in a circle and each person says a number as we go around (5, 10, 15, 20, 25). The person who says the magic number sits down, and the next person starts again at the beginning, until one person is left standing and declared the winner. This is a great game to play at home, even with a small group. 

Next week we'll be back to normal homework folders. Thanks for all your hard work at home!