Wet or Dry?

Fridays in school have always seemed like a good time to sum up and to assess, and that tends to be our pattern in room 19. We had our spelling and our reading tests today – scores for both are already posted on the class gradebook – and we are coming to the end of our second topic in math. We spent a time getting ready for the tests by reviewing homework and by doing a little bit of other preparatory activities. The students overall did quite well. I am so proud that their work habits are becoming strong so fast! This will be a great group of young scholars.

We did a couple admittedly more fun things. We went to the library where Mrs. Koneff gave them an introduction to the Dewey Decimal System. This lesson always makes me misty-eyed because Phyllis Lanni, our late librarian, always had such a way of teaching about the “CALL NUMBER.” She said is so loudly and it always made the students laugh and remember it. I think Mrs. Koneff is fabulous, but Mrs. Lanni was such a character and we all miss her so much.

We did more with our bugs today. We experimented with their preferences for wet or dry environments. The students made runways yesterday, as you recall, and today they placed moist and wet soil in each one. They released the isopods and the darkling beetles into each and then they observed which environment they seemed to prefer. It was, as you can see, a pretty engrossing activity. And yes, there is  a little pun in the choice of that word….

Homework:  (1) Do the study questions over “Isopods and Beetles.” Students will need to take home both the study sheet and their purple Science Resources book. (2) Do “Draw a Picture,” pages 44-46, and “Test Prep,” pages 48-49, both in the Envision Math book.

Students had a chance to start on the math while they were waiting for their bugs to decide which environment they liked best, and most made great progress here. So the amount to go home should not be too much this weekend.