
It was a dark and STEAM-y week at Old Mill. We kicked off this rainy week with an all-girl coding session while the boys went to ½ class art. Thank you AGAIN to our incredibly supportive PTA for purchasing the LEGO WeDo2.0 kits. I am so impressed by the independence and can-do spirit of this class. They certainly don’t back down from challenges. Our Monday afternoon was topped off with an hour long, hands on STEAM Museum in the multi-purpose room. There were gears, robots, electrical circuitry activities, 3-d printer demo, fun STEAM carnival game activities. Again, kudos to our clever PTA for bringing this to Old Mill. It was a BLAST!
In math, we got comfortable with calculating area of rectangular shapes. When we return, the children will learn to figure the area and perimeter of different shapes, with an emphasis on finding square units. We used our mad bar graphing skills to graph the average rainfall of Mill Valley, and then designed a really informative line graph that shows the average high and low temperatures of Mill Valley. Our main line of inquiry this week was learning how weather is predicted, and referring to past weather activity (these graphs) is just one way.
In science, your child made a storm spotter handbook with 4 types of clouds. These clouds help us predict incoming weather. Over break, take a moment to look at the sky and ask your child what they see. Both cumulus (fluffy) and stratus (blanket) clouds indicate fair weather, but cumulonimbus and stratonimbus clouds mean trouble ahead. On Friday, your child made an informative poster about these cloud types using cotton balls to represent the clouds. I’m curious what your child retained, please let me know if they were able to identify any of these clouds!
Reading and writing this week was also focused around clouds and weather, and your child got good practice with reading a selection, then answering questions using multiple choice answers, short and essay responses. This is similar format and good practice for the state testing coming up in a couple months.
You might have heard that your child spent some of the day in Kindergarten on Wednesday. Both Mrs. Butler and I are part of the district Global Studies Committee. Unfortunately, both of our subs canceled the day before the Wednesday meeting, but fortunately, Mrs. Butler offered to cover our class so at least one of us could attend the meeting. Her kinders were in specials most of the day, and when they weren’t, the two classes worked side by side. Mrs. Butler reports that the Room 8 kids were AMAZING and so incredibly hard working and independent. Way to go, crew!
STEAM night on Wednesday was so impressive. I loved seeing so many Room 8 participants. Thank you, parents, for supporting your young scholars!
It was a dark and STEAM-y week at Old Mill. We kicked off this rainy week with an all-girl coding session while the boys went to ½ class art. Thank you AGAIN to our incredibly supportive PTA for purchasing the LEGO WeDo2.0 kits. I am so impressed by the independence and can-do spirit of this class. They certainly don’t back down from challenges. Our Monday afternoon was topped off with an hour long, hands on STEAM Museum in the multi-purpose room. There were gears, robots, electrical circuitry activities, 3-d printer demo, fun STEAM carnival game activities. Again, kudos to our clever PTA for bringing this to Old Mill. It was a BLAST!
In math, we got comfortable with calculating area of rectangular shapes. When we return, the children will learn to figure the area and perimeter of different shapes, with an emphasis on finding square units. We used our mad bar graphing skills to graph the average rainfall of Mill Valley, and then designed a really informative line graph that shows the average high and low temperatures of Mill Valley. Our main line of inquiry this week was learning how weather is predicted, and referring to past weather activity (these graphs) is just one way.
In science, your child made a storm spotter handbook with 4 types of clouds. These clouds help us predict incoming weather. Over break, take a moment to look at the sky and ask your child what they see. Both cumulus (fluffy) and stratus (blanket) clouds indicate fair weather, but cumulonimbus and stratonimbus clouds mean trouble ahead. On Friday, your child made an informative poster about these cloud types using cotton balls to represent the clouds. I’m curious what your child retained, please let me know if they were able to identify any of these clouds!
Reading and writing this week was also focused around clouds and weather, and your child got good practice with reading a selection, then answering questions using multiple choice answers, short and essay responses. This is similar format and good practice for the state testing coming up in a couple months.
You might have heard that your child spent some of the day in Kindergarten on Wednesday. Both Mrs. Butler and I are part of the district Global Studies Committee. Unfortunately, both of our subs canceled the day before the Wednesday meeting, but fortunately, Mrs. Butler offered to cover our class so at least one of us could attend the meeting. Her kinders were in specials most of the day, and when they weren’t, the two classes worked side by side. Mrs. Butler reports that the Room 8 kids were AMAZING and so incredibly hard working and independent. Way to go, crew!
STEAM night on Wednesday was so impressive. I loved seeing so many Room 8 participants. Thank you, parents, for supporting your young scholars!