In Science, we are well into our unit on materials and structures. We started by talking about man-made v. natural structures, for example our school versus a bird's nest. This led to an interesting discussion about what exactly "natural" means, since everything comes from nature originally. This led to a discussion about how people often use big machines to change natural materials into products or other materials that they need, and how sometimes these machines aren't so good for the environment. You can bring this up at home if you like - look at the furniture you have in your home, what are the materials and how did people make them?
Next, we talked about how structures can be used for different purposes. For example, some furniture is designed to be used at home (e.g., a comfortable sofa), whereas some furniture is designed for use at school (e.g., desks). The scientists completed a sorting activity to decide where different furniture items would be best used.
As part of this unit, we will get to do several hands-on experiments to discover the qualities of different materials. This week, students began working in groups to explore materials that were rough and smooth. One student from each group was the teacher while the others closed their eyes and used only their hands to touch both objects, deciding which was rough and which was smooth. Ask your scientist what objects were rough and what was smooth. Were they ever surprised to find that something was smooth when they thought it would be rough?
We have also conducted some experiments to determine if certain materials are waterproof, and to see what type of wall would be the strongest of 3 designs. We'll keep having fun with this, and our big science workshop is just around the corner.
In other news, tomorrow (Friday), all our writers will be bringing home the letters they have written. We are hoping you can help us send them to the right people, but before you do, check out your student's writing. This is a good indication of what they are able to do independently as they had very little help outside of translating some words and having long words repeated slowly. The accompanying rubric is for you to keep. I apologize that it's not quite as neat as usual - I did an initial circle before the letters were complete and had to change some things around later. I did not put a place for revising on the rubric, but each writer spent a few minutes with me making a few small corrections to their writing. We didn't fix everything (you know perfection is not what we're after, and we want the writers to feel confident) but it's important to get in the good habit of making some simple corrections when we can (e.g., turning majuscules into minuscules). Since most of the people we wrote to don't speak French (this was a big worry for some of us), I have translated each letter into English on the reverse (but see if your writer can read it to you in French)!
Finally, our class has been working on a couple social things in the last couple weeks that you might like to reinforce at home. One of these is being quick and efficient during transition times. Getting dressed and undressed in the hall can take a while, though most students can be extremely quick when motivated. We are still all working on doing what we need to without being loud and without pushing and shoving. Today was a million times better than yesterday, so I know it's possible. Leaving home toys at home is a Dewson rule that will eliminate a lot of distractions during these times.
The second thing we're talking a lot about is making good decisions for ourselves. It can be very tempting to copy what someone else does, especially if they're a friend or if we're feeling annoyed. However, showing someone the right thing to is always a better idea and keeps us out of trouble. Treat others the way you would like to be treated, right? I'm sure if you discuss this with your child, they will say all the right things, but it's much harder to put into practice. Nevertheless, I do see people trying to make very good decisions, so it's not impossible. You can encourage this outstanding citizenship by asking your student if there were any problems at recess, and how they helped solve them.
Thanks for your encouragement!