Solo Week!

What a busy week we have had! This was my first solo week, and it was such a great experience with the students! We started our science theme of Rocks and Minerals by discussing the Rock Cycle. We learned about the three types of rocks in the Rock Cycle: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. To demonstrate the changes that these rocks go through, we used crayon shavings and applied heat to form an igneous rock, pressure to form a sedimentary rock, and heat and pressure to form a metamorphic rock. It was fun the see the difference in each pile!

During Daily 5 we started out Dinosaur Book Clubs! Students were partnered up and did a picture walk through nonfiction books on dinosaurs. Together they created questions and things they were wondering about or noticing in the book.

We also learned about the four layers of the earth and special features about each layer: crust, mantle, inner core, and outer core. Did you know that the crust is the thinnest layer of the earth? We created our own map of Earth's layers.

We continued to work on our opinion pieces in writing. We chose a favorite book character, part, picture, or author to write our opinion on. We are getting really good at adding details to our writing. Our goal is to persuade our audience to agree with us!

In Math we did a sorting activity with rocks. We talked about the different ways rocks can be sorted such as size, color, texture, and hardness. In groups we took a sample of different rocks and put them into groups of similar sizes or colors, counted how many were in each category, and graphed the results. The students were excited to discover different igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic!

Have a great weekend :)