The Willard Weekly Reader: Weekly Reader!

This week there was lots of fabulous learning in our class. We continued our investigation of perimeter in math, we created some new pieces of writing, we learned about some very interesting animals, and we worked on learning about electricity through inquiry.
In math we have been working with perimeter. We used rulers to measure the perimeters of different shapes as well as compared the perimeters of these shapes. We were surprised to learn that some shapes that look very different actually have the same perimeters. In math we have also been bridging into working with area. On Thursday we created some different shapes using snap cubes and attempted to cover up a rectangle with an area of 80 cubes! We were interested that some shapes would perfectly cover this rectangle while others could not.
During literacy time we have been working in some non-fiction books, as well as creating new pieces of writing. This week our books were chosen by interest, the students chose to read and learn about; Wolverines, Kakapos, Dogs, and Snakes. For more information about which animals your children read about check in with them. We also have been working on creating pieces of writing along with our inquiry based science work. Students have been working on writing what they have done to create different circuits and we are currently putting the finishing touches on these informational narrative writing pieces.
During discovery we have been working on learning about electricity through inquiry. Students have been given different sets of materials, and have worked toward the goal of illuminating a light bulb. This sort of inquiry based learning in one of my favorites to watch because it really focuses on the student's abilities to solve problems and share information. Below are some photographs of the circuits that were created on today, and integrated a switch to control the light bulb.