Math

In Everyday Math the students practiced real world applications of math and nothing feels more real world than time and money. Initially, this concept of time and money is difficult for children to master. Students made time books with a clock stamp. Then they wrote the time to match the hands on the clock. Also, students have been working on counting by ones, fives and tens translating this into pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. They have put their minds to counting coins and understanding the importance of the concept of money. This week students have been working on paying for items using exact change or having to make change. Both of these concepts are challenging to understand at the beginning but the immediate real world application is immediately clear. Help your child to practice these skills by posing problems for them when grocery shopping or out for dinner.

Writing Workshop

Our new writing unit focuses on informative writing in the form of Lab Reports and Science Books. This non-fiction writing has students taking part in hands on science experiments while learning how to follow and write the scientific process. We began with a whole class investigation about whether a car would go further on the carpet or on the wood floor. Together we hypothesized what would happen, formulated our procedure and recorded the results of the experiment. Students were then able to work with a partner to develop their own variation of the investigation. Students tested everything from which car goes farther to comparing different sized cars, changing the height of ramps, and pushing the car to make it go farther.

Gratitude

Gratitude is a tricky concept to teach kids but one that is super important. By learning gratitude, kids become sensitive to the feelings of others, developing empathy and other life skills along the way. TCS kids were introduced to gratitude on Monday at Whole School Morning Meeting. Students of all ages discussed the meaning of gratitude and categorized it into people, places, and things. Second graders began discussing various things they were grateful for in school and at home.