Photos from our year:

We studied Eric Carle and his art ...

and made our own paper.

We studied chemical reactions and did an experiment using pennies ...

Took a trip to the post office ...

... and enjoyed studying food in our all-school theme week.

Reading/Language Arts

Our reading and language arts program is based on an approach called the four-blocks.  Our time is divided among four different focuses.  A brief description of each follows:

• Guided Reading Block focuses on comprehension, fluency and making sense of text.
• Self-Selected Reading Block focuses on independent reading, getting involved with stories
• Working with Words Block focuses on exploring words, word families, spelling patterns and phonics
• Writing Block             focuses on the writing process and writing for a variety of purposes.

Science

2/3 Science topics for the year include chemistry, soil, rocks & minerals and earth surface changes.  The rotating year includes space, magnets & electricity.

Theme Study

Our theme for the year is “People”.  We will begin with ourselves and our classmates.  Then, broaden our scope to families, people in our school and community and finally a look at biographies of other people outside of our community.  Highlights include personal penny timelines, interview projects, oral history quilts, biography booklets and several author studies.

Teaching through the use of interdisciplinary themes involves a conscious effort to apply knowledge to more than one academic discipline simultaneously. Thematic units of study offer a meaningful and exciting way to engage students in learning activities.

Math

Our math curriculum is The University of Chicago program, Everyday Mathematics.  Each grade’s curriculum is organized into six mathematical strands that cover a number of skills and concepts. Within the content of Everyday Mathematics emphasis is placed on:

• Establishing links from past experience
• Discussing and sharing ideas
• Using and comparing equivalent expressions
• Expressing numbers in context by including units
• Learning about the reversibility of most things.

These ideas gradually shape students’ ways of thinking of mathematics and foster the development of mathematical intuition and understanding.

To keep up with what’s going on in our classroom check out the family letters that come home with each new math unit. These letters provide helpful information about the topics we are working with, vocabulary used in the classroom and

do-anytime activities for use at home.