We are in the middle of our Bee theme and are loving learning about Bees! The children were excited to hear that a bee's favorite color is purple, and that they have five eyes, sacks to carry pollen, two stomachs, four wings, and that the female bees are the only bees with stingers! The female bees also do all of the work to make honey. A bee will only make around a teaspoon of honey in it's entire lifetime.
My contribution to Teacher Pot Luck Lunch!
Math/Science:
We completed a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the similarities and differences in bees and ants. The children knew both have an abdomen, antennae, thorax, head, wings and legs, and differentiated them because bees make honey and have a stinger on their abdomen. Please come look at our bee chart when you have time! We used hash marks/tally marks to vote on our honey taste text and if each child liked the taste. They all described what they were tasting. "It looks like peanut butter!" "It's smooth!" "Sweet, brown, chocolate, sour, it looks like gold, soft, I like it!"
We played a frog math game and practiced writing our teen numbers on the white board in our Math center. We also talked about hexagons and added those to our shape list. We studied the honey combs the bees make while talking about shapes that occur in nature.
I am hoping you enjoyed your chia pet cups with our beans and grass that went home. Feel free to give them haircuts as needed!
We have learned many interesting bee facts, and are looking forward to meeting a bee keeper if we can locate. We read, "You Might Be a Bee", I Didn't Know that Some Bugs Glow in the Dark, It's a Good Thing There are Bees, Chicabee, Mr. Bumble, Ants, Bees, The Bee Tree, Stinky Cheese Man, I Am Caring, Wasps of North America, Bees and Wasps, and many other non-fiction about bees.
We met with our third grade reading buddies and completed "Response to Reading" based on books they brought to read with us. We are nearing the end of these special times with our third grade friends. What a treat it has been to get to know this class! It's lovely to see the children sounding out words to label, describe, or dictate to their buddies and/or teachers to complete these pages.
Language Arts:
We had a mini lesson this week on beginning, middle and end of a story, and then discussed and sequenced stories in reading groups. The children sequenced scenes from stories to order them according to beginning middle and end parts of the story. Discussing characters, sequence of events, and setting are all helpful in increasing reading comprehension. We are using flash cards and our T- H -E POP! "The popcorn dance" to familiarize ourselves with more sight words.
Social/Emotional:
We are replacing negative words with positive words. Please chat with your children if they are using words that might be misinterpreted by classmates. We are ending the rest of the year with many messages about kindness, so are not using the words: "stupid, can't, dumb, hate, boring/bored" etc. There's really no need for any of these words. They are all typically code words for other issues happening so are making a very concerted effort to increase their vocabularies with more appropriate and correct words such as "frustrated, scared, unsure, don't care for, not my favorite" etc. Our manners camp this summer will build on many of these messages! Cannot wait to see many of your children for Ooey Gooey Science, Author Study-Maurice Sendak, and Little Chef's and Manners. Be sure you are signed up if your summer plans allow for amazing enrichment and incredible stimulation for your bright children, as I believe it's close to being filled.
We spoke briefly about the Royal Wedding! I'm not sure it resonated with them but some said they were planning on watching. I'll be watching!
Have a lovely weekend!
Ms. Massey
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