Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, School is Cool,
and Learning is Too!
Ancient Greece Exploration
Dear Parents,
We had a fantastic week celebrating Valentine’s Day and exploring Ancient
Greece!
Literacy
We completed book 1 from our Tales from The Odyssey novel. Students drew their
favorite scene from the book 1 and wrote a description summarizing that scene in
their own words. Students have been making many connections between their library
books to our class novel. Students made text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self
connections.
Discussion Questions to ask your child this week:
What happened at the palace of the wind gods?
How long did Odysseus visit the wind god?
What gift did Odysseus give the wind god?
How did all the world’s mighty winds escape the oxhide sack of the wind gods?
What happened to Odysseus’ mother?
What happened to Odysseus’s father?
What happened to Odysseus’s wife?
What happened when Odysseus and his men got to the Island?
What did the cannibal giants do to Odysseus’ men?
What gift did the gods send after Odysseus encounter with the cannibal giants?
For Valentine’s Day, we used the letters from “Valentine” to create new words. We
discovered close to 30 words! Some of us even found Greek words!
We are in the publishing stage our or persuasive writing, your child will be mailing
them home for you to read. Please keep an eye out for them!
Math
Students used mathematical clues (addition, subtraction, more than, less than, tens
and ones, and even numbers) to complete a mystery picture.
Since we have been practicing our multiplication facts, we explored multiplication
through shaving cream. Students spread shaving cream on table and solved
multiplication problems by writing in the shaving cream.
Math concepts are always being revisited in our classroom. Students are constantly
role playing and creating their own math games. This is a great way for your child to
see the use of each math concept and how it pertains to the real world. This week our
classroom was transformed into a store, students used different objects around the
classroom, labeled them with prices, created a cash register, credit cards, wallets,
and used fake money for their store.
Science
Students created their own model of Ancient Greece. They used clay, pebbles,
stones, modeling clay, and food coloring to developed an ancient civilization. In
groups, they developed islands, peninsulas, mountains, temples, marketplace, trees,
water, and formed ports where ships can dock. Through our readings, we have
discovered different parts of a ship including: bow, port, and rows. We discussed and
looked at different types of ships, as well as, explored the different parts of a ship.
Geography
On Valentine’s Day, students explored the celebration of love that began over
hundreds of years ago. We read about the legends of how the special celebration
began. Each legend described a popular belief about how Valentine’s Day started.
Students created their own Venn diagram (comparing how the legends are similar
and how they are different). Many students created heart Venn diagrams. 😊
We have started creating our own map of Ancient Greece. Students have started
forming the cities of Ancient Greece by writing the city name and history pertaining to
that city.
Friendly Reminders
Please keep collecting and donating toilet paper and paper towel rolls.
During our trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, our class loved the Brickby-Brick exhibit. Students would love to build with Legos in our classroom. If you
have any Legos at home you would like to donate to our classroom, I am sure the
students would love that.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns!
Ms. Briana
[email protected]