Classroom News: ECO, Subtraction, and Crafts!

We had our first ECO lesson with Carrie today!  We started by discussing what animals need to survive in their habitat.  Then, we played a game called "Oh Deer" in which some students were deer and others were either shelter, food, or water.  Using hand signals, the deer had to try and find what they needed to survive in their habitat.  Carrie graphed our deer population over several "years" and we made predictions about what might happen during the next "year".

In our outdoor classroom, we had a nature sharing circle and listened to a story.  After that, we worked together to build a brush pile home for small animals in the woods.  We finished our lesson by sitting and drawing in our "sit spots" and it was interesting to see all of the changes since the last time we were in the woods.  Later in the day, we wrote short narratives and drew illustrations in our ECO journals.

In math class, we have been working on fact fluency by playing a dice subtraction game.  We have also been exploring different strategies for solving subtraction problems with two-digit numbers.  This can be challenging work and I have been impressed with students' motivation to find solutions and show their math thinking.

On Friday afternoon, we joined the kindergarten class for a fun craft activity!  

Important Information and Upcoming Events

Our next ECO lesson will be on Thursday, December 18th.  Thanks to families for helping your children come prepared for ECO lessons!

Gifts for Giving will be on Wednesday, December 17th.

The December Homework is due back on Monday, December 22nd.

The winter holiday break will be from December 24th to January 4th.