We kicked off our astronomy block last week. We started the block with a look at the stars. We will be studying the Age of Exploration later this spring, so we learned about the basics of star navigation. We learned about Polaris, the North Star, and the unique qualities about the star that helped explorers navigate the seas and how it connects to latitude. We also learned about the southern cross and how southern hemisphere explorers used those stars to navigate. We discussed how various ancient cultures perceived the heavens and wove the stars into their storytelling and beliefs. We will continue to explore constellations and their myths. I hope we will have some clearer night skies over the next few weeks since at-home observations will be helpful for reinforcing our classroom work. Luckily, last week the waning moon was clearly visible in the morning sky and we were able to do some observation during the school day.
We continued with our algebra work and spent several days practicing simple word problems. By the end of the week, they were gaining a solid understanding of how to break down the language of a word problem and solve them. We will continue working on algebra for the next few weeks.
We are reading books by Black authors for Black History Month, and I've curated a large collection of recommended readers for the classroom. The students dove into this challenge with their usual enthusiasm and are making recommendations to each other and plowing through my stacks. I had a goal for each student to read four books by the end of February, and I think most of them finished four in the first week.
The class will be performing the puppet show they prepared for Chinese New Year on Thursday. They’ve worked hard to put this show together, and they’re excited to perform for the other students. I will share a video recording of the show with you.
I look forward to seeing you at conferences this week! We will have early dismissal Wed.-Fri. and the students will have an asynchronous online learning day on Wednesday afternoon.
