The Children's School at Stephens College

Our blog is to inform parents of what happens in the classroom.  It’s a glimpse into the everyday actions of our students.  Below you will find an overview of each academic content area.

Math:

Math this week will be geared towards numbers and operations in base 10.  Students are enjoying their math time with our juniors and are challenged everyday.  Below we have included the standard each grade will focus on:

-Kindergarten: Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones.

-First Grade: Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones.

-Second Grade: Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones.

-Forth Grade: Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

-Fifth Grade: Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

Literacy:

We will be focusing on how to revise our writing by strengthening the voice in our stories. Voice in a piece of writing is the personality behind the writer’s words. It’s the heart, eyes, ears, tongue, and hands of the writer. It’s a way of telling a story or poem. Voice can also include the voices of the different people we are inside and outside, the characters that speak to us in our heads, the purpose and audience for which we are writing, and the point of view we have chosen to write in.

We will also be wrapping up our story mountain in describing how to end our stories. So often in writing we get caught up in the action and have trouble finishing our stories. These focus lessons will narrow their writing to creatively end their stories.

Human Body:

Each of the students have chosen a topic to focus on throughout their inquiry. Our focus lesson next week will support children to note take to synthesize information. After children gather their information they will begin creating a visual to represent their knowledge.

In honor of the Fall season, our juniors surprised the elementary students with a Math Extravaganza!  They worked as a class to create math experiences.  They began by reading Spookely the Square Pumpkin.  

Then they could choose other math options.  One was solving word problems.

They provided us with an estimation jar.  Nora was the closest with an estimation of 446 and the answer was 510!

Student also had directions for measuring pumpkins .  Our youngest students measured using manipulatives.

Silly Pumpkins were a hit too.  Students rolled a die and that number told them what to add to their pumpkin.

Math Extravaganza was such a hit that teachers want to continue these learning experiences.

This morning the preschool morning class joined the elementary class for pumpkin painting. It was another quality gathering time with new friends. Pumpkins were provided by Bradford Farms.

Group 2 presented their independent inquiry  topics this week. On Tuesday Michael spoke to the class about lighthouses. He went on a trip to Florida where he visited a lighthouse that is said to be haunted. He made his own models of lighthouses out of paper towel rolls and construction paper.

Marley presented information that she learned about the MU Columns. She brought in a piece of limestone as a visual because the columns are made out of this type of rock. She told us about it’s history and and what is symbolizes for MU’s campus.

We had a very special visitor come to our classroom this morning. Princess Kate stopped by for an interview! Kaylee came in costume and answered questions about this important public figure.

Konrad came in complete costume for his presentation. Konrad studied weapons. He shared information about bows and swords and answered all of our questions. He was an expert on the topic and its important use throughout history.

Elena shared her knowledge of leopards. She told us about Nimbus. Nimbus is a leopard that was rejected by her parents and then taken in by a land keeper. She came in full leopard costume for her presentation. 

What an exciting week! Today we took a walk to Boone Hospital Center and had a tour of an ambulance. Marley and Syler were both excellent pretend patients! We learned about taking vitals, air casts and taking care of our body.

We are happy to announce that independent inquiry presentations are well under way. We had four presenters last week and the next few weeks we will get to hear presentations about soccer, vision, Minecraft, lighthouses, MU Columns, Paul McCartney, Princess Kate, and many more.

Today we started new math groups! Everyone was excited to have a fresh start with a new teacher. Ms. Izzy, Ms. Jill, Ms. Danielle, and Ms. Kait are teaching math for the next four weeks. The groups will be focusing on Numbers and Operations in Base Ten.

Spelling is way more exciting when you get to act it out! In our spelling workshop today we practiced spelling words by moving our bodies.  We also have been focusing on the parts of speech. Our older students are drafting a rap. This is what they have so far:

OUR PARTS OF SPEECH

All right, we’re gonna name da'(the) parts of speech.

Break it down y’all

The first part of speech we’re gonna name:

a noun, person, place or thing

Now for the pronoun:

he, she, it, her, him, my and I

Now for the verb:

an action word, like “Hey that’s a flying bird!”

Adverb is the key to everything:

like easily, quickly, and I’m totally not singing quietly, I’m singing it loudly.

Now for the adjective:

a describing word, like we’re all rapping kids

Below are pictures from our workshop.

Stephens College Children’s School is hosting their first fundraiser at Shakespeare’s Pizza on November 10th!  Here is more information: stephens College Childrens flyer

We hope you can participate!