Compound Words...

Our focus this week in Language Arts was compound words; a combination of two or more words that join to make one word. To start off the week, the students were given the following letters for a Making Words activity...A, E, O, S, F, L, K, N, W

They had some time to work on their own and then got together with a partner to share lists and build new words. We compiled a class list of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 letter words. The students are very creative and it is exciting to see the words they can make! The mystery word...SNOWFLAKE!

The students worked together to think of as many compound words as they could. The class came up with over 40 words!

They also worked on filling in sentences using a list of compound words.

We read a few stories from our Collections series. It is great to see an increase in confidence as different students volunteer to read to the class. They are working on their fluency, expression and using an appropriate volume. They also had the chance to read a selection with a friend, taking turns to read after each paragraph.

The students worked on illustrating their "All About Me" paragraphs. They really enjoy using websites such as Art Hub to help with directed drawing.

We worked on cursive writing, perfecting the letters E and L.

We started our new unit in Math, which will lead up to multiplication. This week, the students worked on odd/even numbers, extending number patterns and repeated addition.

The students started a new program, called Xtra Math, to help them practice their basic math facts.

We completed three challenges this week in Science. The students are really working on teamwork and cooperating with their peers. 

We made it across the hot lava! It was very scary and a lot of work. Most of us are starving and we haven’t eaten for HOURS! Ahead of us, in the dense jungle we spot some trees. It looks like there are bananas hanging from them. YUM!!! We all begin running towards the tree. SUDDENLY, Rocco stops. He is out of breath and pointing ahead at a fast moving river. We need to make it across the river in order to eat. We spot some tree bark near by and decide to build a few beams in order to make a bridge.  None of us want to be swept away by the current so we will have to work together and come up with the best design. There are three types of beams that we will need to test.

Conclusion: Not all beams support the same mass. The box girder was stronger than the accordion beam and the rectangular beam. 

YAY!!! The beams for the foot bridge are strong enough for us to cross the fast moving river. We are finally able to enjoy a few bananas. Now that we have full bellies, we can concentrate on building some shelter. The fierce storm is still heading our way and we need somewhere to keep dry and get some rest for the night. Logan has a brilliant idea and takes us back to our aircraft. We see that a few pieces of tin have come off the side of the plane during our emergency landing. Lillia and Katie decide to haul the tin to a small clearing in the trees. Nathan decides to bend the tin to make an arch for our shelter. The clouds look dark and heavy with rain. We need to make sure our arch is strong enough to hold the downpour. Does a wider gap cause the arched shelter to be stronger or weaker than a shorter gap? We need to test this so that we can stay dry for the night!

Conclusion: The arch spanning the shorter gap is stronger because the weight is more evenly spread out. 

What a success! We haven't been on the island for very long but have already found a bit of food and now we have some shelter. We do have one problem though! The rain has started to come down quickly and it is beginning to make small puddles around our sleeping area. We are also worried that with the amount of rain falling, the river not far from us may begin to flood. We need to raise the area where we are going to sleep so that it is not on the ground. We head back to the plane and grab another large piece of tin for the floor of our shelter. It won't be the softest place to sleep but at least we will be out of the puddles and safe if the river floods. We drag the tin back to our shelter and start thinking about how we are going to raise it above the ground. Ashley decides that we should use some tree stumps near by to make a pillar to hold up the floor. Which design will hold the most weight? Should we use one larger pillar in the center or four smaller pillars in each of the corners of our tin floor? 

Conclusion: Four pillars hold the most mass because the weight is evenly distributed. 

This week's focus in PE was "Territory and Invasion" games. 

We had some super star readers this week! Way to go!