Many Seconds in Second

We stayed very busy this week and learned many new things!  The post entitled ‘Many Seconds in Second’ will review what your child has learned and participated in!

Reading:

This week we learned what mental images (visualizing) are and how we can use this to help our reading comprehension and reading thinking.  Below is a picture of us using our visualizing tubes to help us get our minds ready for visualizing.  We also touched and smelled different objects to create mental images. Our minds think differently because we are uniquely created by God.  We started showing our thinking using post-it notes in our independent reading and had meaningful conversations with our reading partners.

(Caroline and Jacob are making metal images as they study the seashell)

(Josi's mental images as she reads)

Writing:

We have started our Authors as Mentors unit in writing.  We are using the book, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen as our master teacher in writing.  We have listened to the story about going owling.  We noticed how Jane takes a special moment in her life and writes a powerful story.  We too, are working at picking out special moments in our lives to write powerful stories.  We have created and used a tiny topics notebook to help us jot down our small moment stories. 

Math:

We are working on learning new strategies for figuring out addition equations.  We also began learning/practicing math facts.  We are using bits and pieces of ‘Rocket Math’.  This is a five minute drill practice and 1 minute timed test in math facts.

Bible: 

We began our study of the Old Testament.  This week we reviewed the Creation and Fall of Man Bible story.  We are using our ipads to retell these stories. 

(Jack and Charlie helping each other re-tell the Creation Bible story)

Science:

We have become junior botanist!  We are in the mist of many plant experiments.  We planted bean seeds in kitty litter, coffee grounds, clay, and sand.  Will our seeds survive under these conditions?  Results coming soon!

 Chapel: 

Tim VanderZwaag is a farmer who was in a big farming accident about ten months ago. He came to speak to us on Wednesday morning during chapel.  He began our chapel to remember two simple, but important words: ‘Trust God’.  He continued to tell his story of the events that happened before, during, and after his farming accident.  As he layed on the frozen ground, bruised and broken from head to toe Tim knew he had to trust God.  What great faith and trust this man had in God.  In times of great trail, struggle, pain and darkness, it is the trust and faith we have in Jesus that will pull us through.  God is love, God is our healer!  Tim’s story is certainly transforming the world!