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Whew! What a Week!

This week learned a great mindfulness strategy. We learned that our brains tend to focus on the negative in situations. We had a visual of a bottle with a thin neck that only lets in these smaller, negative "balls." The larger, and positive, green balls bounce off the top and don't fit in the neck. We need to OPEN the bottle neck. We can actually, "use our mind to train our brain," (Rick Hanson) We know that teaching ourselves to be optimistic helps our overall health, so this is important! We learned HEAL.


Try it at home! It's super relaxing and calming!

In reading we honed our skills as summarizers of fiction. We are CSERT experts! Focusing on the main Character, the Setting, narrowing the Experience they are having, watching for the Resolution, and finally, adding the Theme or lesson results in a very accurate summarization of the text. We practiced with a number of books, including one from our Dec. 15th visiting author. We enjoyed Phil Bildner's book, The Soccer Fence, a historical fiction book that is set in South Africa during the time of Apartheid.

In writing we have been drafting, and revising, and revising again! We've explored the art of adding details that "Show, don't Tell." Instead of : "I was happy," we describe the smiles on our faces, the high fives, and the tears of joy streaming down our faces. Much richer writing! We examined a small moment narrative poem by Ralph Fletcher called "The Good Old Days," and are using it as mentor text to compose our own poems, which eventually will become full narratives.

In math, 4th graders are learning to multiply a two digit number by a two digit number. Our 3rd graders are designing candy boxes using tiles, graph paper and multiplication arrays. Second graders used play money to make a dollar. We also had fun practicing number sense and talking about our strategies to figure out logic problems.






Also, Monday, November 24 is Math Day and we would like for our students to wear a shirt with numbers on it.

In social studies, we compared and contrasted the lives of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people. We discovered that there were many differences, but these communities also shared many things in common.

In science, we've started our mixtures and solutions unit. We've identified characteristics of both and can't wait to dive into some investigations over the next few weeks.

Second graders experienced some hands-on science at Westcave Preserve on Tuesday! It was an incredible day packed with environmental science. We could hardly contain our excitement on the way there...


Learning about limestone and Westcave's history from Mr. Paul...

Checking out some of the preserve's natural resources: flint rock.

Check out those adorable scientists!




What happens when a stalactite and stalagmite meet? A column is created!


We even got to touch a stalagmite! Ask your second grade scientist about its properties. :)

Stalactites weren't the only things hanging from the ceiling: we met Otis, a Myotis bat (also known as a little brown bat or mouse-eared bat). He slept through our visit but was super cute!

We learned that oak trees can create a special growth called a gall. The gall forms around the insect larvae, which eventually bores a hole to escape!


We had a blast!

Have a great weekend!
Your SBLC Team

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