Where in the World?

November 18 – November 22
Our theme for the twelfth week of school is "Where in the World?"

LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading
Our interactive read-aloud for this week was The Bunyons by Audrey Wood. The primary skill is understanding figurative language (hyperbole) and it makes a fun connection to geography since the story depicts how formations across the U.S. were created.


MATHEMATICS
We have moved on to subtraction with a focus on fractions. My favorite manipulatives to use are Pattern Blocks and Rainbow Fraction Bars.


HISTORY
The theme of this week centers around geography and since we are studying the expansion of the U.S., I thought this video about the U.S. Border with Canada would be fun. One Look At The United States-Canada Border Reveals Some Ridiculous Things.We ended up watching it several times because the kids found it so interesting.

P.E.
I suppose that it wouldn't be November without football. Aside from the basics of learning to throw a football correctly and understanding the basics of the game, we also studied the protective equipment used in football. Even students who are not athletic enjoy learning why football helmets are made of plastic rather than metal, what a concussion is and why each football team has more than one uniform design/color scheme.


VISUAL ART
All eight centers are now open: drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, digital arts, fabric arts, sculpture or clay. Our five minute museum for this week was The View of Toledo by El Greco.

Read-Aloud: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

What we're reading together...Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a realistic fiction series (Level S-- 3rd or 4th grade) with seven books so far. (It's also a movie!)

It's a novel in graphic cartoons so it's important for kids to see the pictures as you read and it's a great book for a shared reading time via projector.

The main character Greg Heffley suffers from hilarious problems that he obliviously creates for himself.

This book is a favorite with kids and can be a fabulous way to entice the reluctant older reader because the reading level is low but the subject matter and interest level is higher. It's even popular with adults-- my brother-in-law enjoyed it so much he agreed to painted the mural for me in the library (see photo above).