FEBRUARY 12
2010
B anyan Newsletter Reading and Writing Workshop
SCIENCE MOMENTUM
We went outside and worked with our bodies to experience momentum. We walked and tried to stop. We jogged and tried to stop and then we ran our fastest and tried to stop. I asked the students in which experience was it harder to stop your body. What happened to your body when you tried to stop.? We went to the playground and looked for examples of momentum.
GRAVITY
We looked at a video of the Olympics of 2004. We watched the gymnastics portion and looked for examples of gravity and momentum. The students worked in their journals recording every day examples of momentum. Take some time to look for some examples over the week off: skiing, swinging, biking down a hill etc.
SOCIAL STUDIES We continued thinking about communities. Who is in our community at MCDS? The students brainstormed people in our community. We came up with questions to ask them in an interview. We will be going out in
Reading
Math
Banyan readers continued to
We started a new unit
add to their nonfiction elements
continuing our work with
books. We added in elements that
addition and subtraction. Make
they may use in their nonfiction
sure to check out the parent
writing.
letters on the Banyan webpage
We continued to write in our
under the math section in
reading response journals. We end each reading workshop with a
Resources. We revisited some old games
share in which each student
with new twists to challenge their
shares something they wrote in
mathematical thinking. We
their notebook. We practice
played missing parts games
speaking and listening skills at this
looking at combinations of 10.
time as well. Banyan students
We discussed fact families.
invite each other to share around
(7+3=10, 10-3=7, 10-7=3). We
the circle and eagerly listen to
also began looking at
their thoughts about their
combinations for 12. We talked
reading.
about systematic ways in which we could find all the
How-To Books Writers are almost finished
combinations and be sure. The
with the steps and materials lists
students are learning to organize
for their how-to books. Banyan
their mathematical thinking
students are now reading their
during “How Many of Each�
steps to each other to figure out if
problems. We looked at a more
they are missing anything. Then,
complex version of these
we will illustrate each step and
problems: I had 7 crayons in my
edit our writing.
box. Some are red and some are blue. I have more blue crayons than red crayons. What could I have?
small groups to interview a number of people who help our community function each day. BANYAN NEWSLETTER
2010