Reading Like a Scientist, Triangle Math, Dirty Water Experiments and Instructional Writing

Important Information about Mrs. Lagrana's Home Reading Program:

Starting this week Home Reading will only be switched on Thursdays. Student's will bring home the new books in their Home Reading bags as usual. The bag will include a page with instructions for strategies to practice for that week. On the back of the paper is the Parent Pipeline sheet for you to review. It is also on my blog for future reference. Please fill out the side of the sheet that has room for you to do so. Support your child's reading progress by working on these strategies all week with the two books that are in their home reading bag. Sometimes in the bag might also be additional reading material, connected to what we are doing in class. The Home Reading books can be returned by the following Thursday. This give a full week to work on the same strategies that we are working on during our Literacy time at school and to ensure your child is re-reading text to gain FLUENCY and build COMPREHENSION. 

Thank you for your continued support. 




Reading Like a Scientist!

Today in Literacy time we continued to "Read like a Scientist". We have been reading small reading excerpts about scientific topics such as Dispersion, Leeching, Absorption, Water Contaminants, Molecules, Particles, Pollutants, Water Run-Off, Fertilizer, Pesticides and the benefits of wetlands. 

We have been working on using highlighters to notice new and interesting vocabulary when we read. Sometimes we can figure out the meaning from what would make sense in the sentence. Sometimes we can ask a friend in our reading group (or an adult) to define a new word. Sometimes we need to use a dictionary or thesaurus to look it up. 

When we are reading like a Scientist it is normal to have more difficult vocabulary. 

The two reading strategies that we will be highlighting this week are:

Accuracy (A) from our Literacy Cafe: FLIP THE SOUND:

And 

Expand Vocabulary (E) from our Literacy Cafe: Tune In To Interesting Words

Triangle Math

Today we continued practising adding two numbers using Triangle Math. This is a continuation of first exploding the numbers into their friendly 10's, 5's and Extra's. Often it is called Decomposing. In grade 2 we like to call it triangle math!

First: Break the numbers into their friendly 5's, 10's and Extra's

We will be working on this addition strategy for the week. Ask me to show you one or two at home to practice!


SCIENCE

DIRTY WATER!

Yesterday we brainstormed many CONTAMINANTS that could be in water to make it dirty, or unsafe. 

We were challenged to make dirt water using a variety of materials

-dirt
-oil
-sand
-rocks/pebbles
-gras/moss/plants
-organic material (carrot peels)
-animal poop (kidney beans and clay)
-fertilizer and pesticides (fine sand)
-dispersed chemicals (tea)

Today we looked at the concept of DISPERSION in more detail to understand how some harmful chemicals can disperse and eventually  not be seen in the water (hiding in the water) and that some water while it might look clean and clear could have hidden contaminants. 

Dispersion: is a process by which concentrated particles are separated from each other in water or another substance.

Water is made up of tiny particles called molecules. When materials mix with water, their molecules mix together and the materials disperse (spread out) in water and become less strong (concentrated). We call this action dispersion.

We were then challenged with the task of tryign to CLEAN our dirty water.

We will be focusing on attempting to clean our water for the rest of the week. Ask me what happened to my water today when I used a strainer to try to make it clean again?

Instructional Writing: HOW TO WRITING!

Yesterday we were challenged to write instructions for: How to Make Dirty Water? We were given no guidelines only asked to write instructions for Marvy the Martian (who knows nothing about earth activities) in a way that he would be able to understand!

Today we talked about the importance of being specific, putting things in proper sequential order and adding descriptive words so that the reader understands each step of the instruction. Today we practiced: How to Brush Your Teeth Writing. Tomorrow we will make a second attempt at How To Writing.

We watched a video on Ordinal Numbers. When I write instructions I can follow the: First, Next, Then, After and Finally. I can also use ordinal numbers to label the order of steps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfGQBfm0T4M


Pumpkinella was so much fun! We were so excited to see and sketch our favorite pumpkins. We were amazed at everyone's creativity and imagination!