Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Classroom update

It's been a busy last few weeks here in the classroom, but we managed to squeeze in a bit of a short update here to keep everyone up to speed of what's been going on with the Red Snails.  

We got a new group of spelling words for the first week.  This week's words are:

1.  horse
2.  birds
3.  since
4.  ever
5.  heaven
6.  satin
7.  associative
8.  community
9.  organism
10.  ascend
11.  arrest
12.  problem
13.  complete
14.  piece
15.  told
16.  penguin
17.  commutative
18.    ecosystem
19.  reproduce
20.  arena
21.  room
22.  new
23.  listen
24.  children
25.  long
Trouble words from last week:
1.  early
2.  neutral
3.  abundant
4.  canopy
5.  nutrients
6.  resist
7.  curtain

New vocabulary words for this week are:

1.  Arrest:  To hold or capture.
2.  Ascend:  To go up or climb higher.
3.  Arena:  Center stage or platform.

For part of the science lesson this week, we learned about Venn Diagrams.  You can pick up a worksheet for Venn Diagrams HERE!

We read two more chapters in The Reptile Room this week.  Things are really getting interesting with the orphans now.  You can keep up with what book we are on from month to month HERE!

Another part of our science lesson this week was learning, observing, and recording how ants work and function within an ant farm.  There were will be more weeks of this, but placing them in their ant farm and observing them, and recording the data is this week's lesson.   (Worksheets we used this week)

You can pick this worksheet up HERE!

You can pick this worksheet up HERE!

For history, we covered facts about George Washington and learned some interesting things about him.  (Worksheets used this week)

Grab this worksheet HERE!
Grab this worksheet HERE!

For a nice change of pace from school work and activities, we decided to treat Skylar to a trip to the LEGO store to pick up a few LEGOs for his collection.  It was a nice break from work, and school for all of us.  You can read more about his LEGO adventures HERE!


This week we took a test on the trouble words from last week and then got a new list of spelling words.

After the test on the trouble words the new list was given and the missed words were added back in for another week.
The words for this week are:
  1. associative
  2. community
  3. organism
  4. neutral
  5. nutrients
  6. bridal
  7. dental
  8. gerbil
  9. nasal
  10. postal
  11. longer
  12. rain forest
  13. population
  14. inverse
  15. climate
  16. hemisphere
  17. taiga
  18. legos
  19. top
  20. ship
  21. across
  22. today
  23. during
  24. short
  25. better
  26. best 
  27. however
  28. low

We also worked on Homophones......(Words that sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings)



We also got three more new vocabulary words for this week.


• Assist:  To help.
• Attempt:  To try.
• Attentive:  Full focus, or alert.

We read two more chapters in The Reptile Room, only leaves two more to go before the book is finished.  You can follow along with our reading books HERE!



In science last week we observed the ants in the ant farm, also looked at the inside of the ant hill and how the ants operate.  We also learned the basic of an ant.  This week we dig a bit deeper into the ants and learned a bit more details with their habitat and their bodies.  (Worksheets used this week)

Grab this worksheet HERE!

Along with ants this week for science, we also covered the facts about Venus.



For math this week we went over rounding to certain place values.  We've been working with rounding larger numbers to the 100s place.


We also went to see the Easter bunny during this time as well.


We also colored some large Easter eggs just for fun.





Stay tuned for more updates from the Red Snail Classroom.