Miss Whittemore Says.... Plants!

Hello Wise Owls! It sure has been a while! I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that we have a Science Unit Test over Plants on Friday. Our Wise Owls have received their Science review today and are expected to have this completed by tomorrow to play ZAP! We have been furiously adding new words to "Miss Whittemore Says..." so to prepare for the test, I wanted to share! Below is a video of all of the words they will need to know for Friday.  This isn't the only way for them to study, but it sure does help!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPPi_wQTj2Y&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Seed Dissection

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! With all of this rain, it has left me with not much to do, so I'm going to catch up on catching you up! This week in Science we learned about the structure of a seed and the different functions of each of the parts. Of course, we can't learn without getting our hands on some seeds and seeing what they look like inside! So this led to seed dissection! We used lima beans in order to learn about each of the three parts of a seed. I took a few photos to show you.

The first thing we had to do to dissect our seed is remove the seed coat. This is the first part of the seed that we learned about. In case you are wondering, the seed coat's function is to protect the seed. The photo above shows Haven removing the seed coat. 

Next, we had to split the seed open so that we could seed the inside of the seed. Here is Madison K. after she had taken off the seed coat and beginning to dissect the seed. 

Once we got the seed open it was time to make some careful observations. We paid close attention to the cotyledon and the embryo. The cotyledon stores food for the seed. The embryo is the baby plant! Here is Avery P. looking closely at the cotyledon. 

The photo above is Jerah making close observations of the embryo that she found in her lima bean!

Here is Eric and Brogan making some careful observations. Once they're finished they are going to share what they found!

Coming up this week, we will be learning about the different ways that plants can reproduce and the life cycle of a plant! Stay tuned to see the results of the seed germination experiment! Have a great weekend Wise Owls!

Brookside Pride Night

Here is our finished product for our Back to School Basket for Brookside Pride Night this evening! 

Thank you SO much to the parents who were kind enough to donate items to our basket! Just a reminder, all of the proceeds from the silent auction of our classroom basket will come back to our classroom! I can't wait to see how big of a hit our basket is! I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of donations that I received! I really can't say thank you enough! You all are AWESOME!

Just a reminder of the schedule of Brookside Pride Night:

Hot dogs, chips, and drinks will be sold in the cafeteria starting at 5:30.

At 6:00 there will be a small assembly in the gym that includes an introduction of the teachers at Brookside! I can't wait to see you there!

Once the assembly is over, teachers will head back to the classroom and you can meet us there! You'll get to see our latest art project and check out our classroom! I hope each of you swing by to talk because I can't wait to tell each of you how awesome your student is doing in my room! 

Once you come into the classroom tonight I will have sign-ups for Parent-Teacher Conferences on the 30th. This will be our chance to meet one-on-one to discuss the progress your student is making, how they interact in the classroom, and areas of growth that we can work on. I can't wait to see each of you tonight!

Interpreting Remainders

Over the weekend I realized that I have posted all Science posts and I have not included any Reading or Math! Math is my absolute favorite subject and I was upset that I had not shared any of the fun math strategies that we have been learning over the past few weeks! I made sure to take some photos of our Wise Owls in action today as we were working on interpreting remainders!

Over the past week we have been looking at how to solve division problems using manipulatives. Beginning Friday our students learned how to solve division problems with remainders! What a big task! Today we took it one step further and our Wise Owls learned how to interpret remainders and when they should just up the quotient, when we should drop the remainder, and when we should just give the remainder.

Listed below are the three ways to interpret remainders:

1. Sometimes the remainder IS the answer.

2. Sometimes you increase the quotient. 

3. Sometimes you drop the remainder.

After we explored the different ways to interpret remainders, our Wise Owls turned to their shoulder partners and tried to tackle interpreting the remainder with their partners. 

Here are some photos of Wise Owls working together to interpret remainders and solve real-world problems while using manipulatives to help them out:

Here is Avery and Katie working hard at interpreting remainders! These two sure do work well together!

Keegan and Jacob took on a different approach. They worked it out individually first and then checked with each other to see if they both had the same answer. In this problem, Keegan and Jacob had to give the remainder as the answer. 

Jared is working out the problems and then checking with the rest of his group to see if their answers check! Great job, Jared!

Matthew and A'Layla are relying on teamwork to solve these division problems. Great teamwork, Matthew and A'Layla!

Keep checking back to see our progress on division! I hope to see you at Open House on Thursday evening! 

Updated OWL Report!

Here is your updated OWL Report for the week of September 30- October 4! 

Get Your News Here!

Posted below is our weekly OWL Report for this week! This will come home with your students tomorrow, but I thought you'd appreciate a sneak peak!

Happy Constitution Day!

Good Evening Wise Owls! Today was Constitution Day so our wise owls spent a few minutes learning about the Constitution, and specifically about the First Amendment! I split the class up into 5 groups, each group representing one of the five freedoms that the First Amendment grants U.S. citizens. The groups had to work together to design a poster that told about the freedom they were assigned, the rights that freedom grants, and the responsibilities we have as U.S. citizens to uphold the integrity of these freedoms. The groups then each had to present their posters to the class so that everyone learned about each of the five freedoms! Posted below is the group that taught our class about the Freedom of Speech.

Great job Avery, Jacob, Jared, and Jazmin! 

After each of the groups presented, we learned a chant to help up remember the five freedoms that the FIrst Amendment gives us! The chant says, "First Amendment, Five Freedoms, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom to Petition." I recorded the video so that our wise owls could share their knowledge with you!