Mrs. Richeson's Classroom

Whew! How time flies when you’re having fun! We haven’t posted a blog update in a while but it hasn’t been because we didn’t have anything to talk about…we’ve been busy!

Here is what we’ve been working on and where we’re headed in each subject:

WRITING
We recently completed writing a story to a prompt about a ride on a dolphin. They turned out very creative, so check out them out when you come to visit on Valentine’s party day. We are now starting our research project. Each student will research, write about and podcast about a different state.

READING
This week we have been practicing our test skills by reading and answering questions. Next week we will be reading Valentine’s stories and doing related activities.

MATH
We are finally through learning double digit addition and subtraction! We have been working on counting money. We are now starting chapter 8, Measuring Time and Temperature.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES
Along with our research project in writing, we are learning about the different states as well as the symbols if the United States. On Groundhog’s Day we learned about the history of Groundhog’s Day and watched Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow (which means 6 more weeks of winter, by the way). We will be observing how our own shadows work, as well. We have also been studying about Martin Luther King, Jr. In February, we will be studying about George Washington and Abe Lincoln in conjunction with President’s Day. We will learn about dental health in honor of Dental Health month.

This is a Reader’s Theatre of Thanksgiving at the Tappletons. It is in two parts so be sure to enjoy part one & part two. Happy Thanksgiving!

This is part two of Thanksgiving at the Tappletons…

As part of our unit on fairy tales, we wrote a fairy tale together. Read our class story by viewing the slideshow below!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We have been learning about and studying the elements of fairy tales.  Also, we are writing our own fairy tales.  Check out our fairy tales by visiting our podcast page.  Here’s the link… http://vr.woisd.net/users/richesone/weblog/

Enjoy!

Please enjoy our reader’s theatre… The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey.

Class picture day is tomorrow, October 22nd. Order forms are coming home with students today.

While learning about matter this week, we made oobleck.  To make oobleck, you mix 1.5-2 cups of cornstarch with 1 cup of water.  We added food coloring to make ours green.  When you squeeze the oobleck it will feel like a solid.  When you let go, it will ooze like a liquid.

We did an experiment to observe the 3 states of matter. Here is how to do the experiment at home:
1. Put a piece of ice in a snack size baggie. This is the solid state of matter.
2. Take your baggie outside to watch the ice melt. This is the liquid state of matter.
3. When the ice is completely melted, drop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet. Now you can see the gas state of matter. (Note-Eventually your baggie will pop open if you don’t unzip it yourself, so watch out for this!)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

In math…
We have recently finished our chapter on subtraction.  We will now begin chapter 4 on graphing and organizing data.

In reading…
We have been reading books about Fall and recording our observations both before and after reading.

In writing…
We are using Photo Booth on our new Macbooks in our new PRIMARY CAMPUS COMPUTER LAB (woo hoo!) to take scary pictures that we will use as inspiration to write Halloween-themed stories.  Stay tuned for podcasts of student writing!

In science…
We are studying matter-its 3 different states and how it changes from state to state.

In social studies…
Last week we learned about Christopher Colombus.  Check our our podcast at http://vr.woisd.net/users/richesone/.