This week was fish week! We started off the week by discussing the difference between an ocean and a lake. In a lake, we can find algae, sunfish, walleye, lily pads, and leeches. In the ocean, you can find jellyfish, sharks, whales, sea horses, and dolphins. We talked about the fact that an ocean has salt water and a lake has fresh water. We also learned some fish facts. Fish are cold-blooded, have backbones, and breathe through gills. They have scales on the outside to protect their bodies and they swim by moving their fins. We used our fish knowledge to create a fish bowl full of fish facts. We also wrote a descriptive story which we turned into a class book. We started out by drawing a picture of a make-believe fish. Then we wrote sentences that told what our fish looked like. Throughout the week we did several different art projects. We created a fish bowl with fish and sparkly rainbow fish.
Monday:
In reading, we reviewed our letter sound and letters before we were introduced to our new letter, Jj. After watching our letter video, we completed our letter worksheet.
This week were are learning about fish. We started with discussing habitats or places where animals live. Together we worked on sorting animals into 4 different habitats, oceans, ponds, forests, & farms. When all of the cards were sorted, we talked about the different animals in each habitat. Next we talked about the difference between the ocean and a lake. We found out that the biggest difference between lakes and oceans is the kind of water in it. Lakes are fresh water. In it we can find algae, sun fish, walleye, lily pads, and leeches. Oceans are salt water. In the ocean, we can find jelly fish, sharks, whales, sea horses, and dolphins. Next we worked together to sort a group of animal cards between their habitats oceans or lakes/ponds. Finally, we uncovered some of the characteristics of a fish. (Just like when we studied penguins, we uncovered the characteristics of a bird.) A fish lays eggs, has a backbone, is cold-blooded, and breaths through gills. We gathered many of our facts through different videos about fish.
In religion, we turned our focus back to the Stations of the Cross. After reviewing the first station, we talked about the second station: Jesus Takes Up His Cross. Then we colored a picture of it.
In math, we worked with the attribute blocks again. The attribute blocks are a combination of triangles, circles, rectangles, squares, and hexagons in different sizes, shapes, and colors. After dividing into groups, we tried to figure out all of the different ways we could sort the blocks. Then we worked on identifying different characteristics of the blocks. Ms. Torborg had 4 different spinners each identifying a different characteristic. We started with just one spinner and worked our way up to all four spinners. Our job was to find the shape that fit all the characteristic that Ms. Torborg called out.
We ended our day by drawing a picture of a fish. We could create any design we wanted on our fish. We could have a pink and white polk a dot fish with a striped tail or our fish could have squares and circles all over it.
Tuesday:
In reading, we were introduced to our 3 new sight words, up, down, & there. Then we read through our new emergent reader, Down in the Ocean. We worked together to figure out the harder words on each page using both the pictures and the letter sounds. We noticed that there were describing words on each page. After reading as a class, we partner read the story. Then we completed our 3 sight word worksheets.
Next, we reviewed some of the fish facts like fish are cold-blooded or they have fins to keep them upright and move. Then we moved on to our project. On Monday, we drew a picture of a fish. The next step was to write about our fish. Our job was to write a description of our fish. We had to pretend the person listening to our description could not see the picture. We had to write sentences that described our fish. They could be about things that you could see like stripes or colorful or about things you can't see like friendly or mean. When we were done, Ms. Torborg will put them together into a class book.
In religion, we are focusing on Lent and the Stations of the Cross. Today we focused on the Third Station: Jesus Fall for the First Time. After talking about the station, we colored a picture of it.
Wednesday:
Today was a planned early release day. We got out of school after lunch.
During reading, we reviewed some of the facts we know about fish like fish are cold-blooded or they have fins to keep them upright and move. Then we watched a couple of videos about fish. Together we were able to identify some new fish facts. Then we put our knowledge to good use. We created a fish bowl full of fish facts. Our fish bowl is made up of five different pages piled on top of each other. The first page will be our cover page, so we have decorate it anyway we want. On the second page, we had to write two sentences starting with “Fish are . . .”. On the next page, we had to write two sentences starting with “Fish can. . .”. On the third page, we had to write two sentences starting with “Fish have . . .”. On the last page, we had to label the different parts of the fish. Once each of the pages were done, we had to cut out the fish bowls. Then they will get stacked on top of each other and stapled together.
In religion, we turned our focus back to the Stations of the Cross. After reviewing the few stations, we talked about the fourth station: Jesus Meets Mary, His Mother. Then we colored a picture of it.
Thursday:
After recess, we gathered together as a whole school via Zoom for the Stations of the Cross. Mrs. Lingen lead us as we listened to what happened at each station and said a short prayer.
During Reading, we reviewed the letter Qq, explored the relationship between q and u, and completed our letter q worksheet. We also created a fish bowl. First we had to decide if it was going to be a fresh water or salt water tank. We decided that most fish tanks are fresh water. Then we had to decide what things should be in a fish bowl- sand, rocks, castles, sunken ships, treasure boxes. Ms. Torborg cut out a fish bowl outline for us. We had to create all of the things we wanted in our fish bowl. We had to keep in mind the size of fish bowl as we created our things. Everything had to fit in our fish bowl! Once we had it all ready, we put it in between two lamination sheets and Ms. Torborg laminated them. Finally we cut around the outside of the fish bowl. It looks like our fish our are suspended in the bowl.
In math, we played a new game, Hiding Bears. We started with 10 bears and a cup. We pretended the cup was a bear den. One person hid some bears in the den. Then the other person had to figure out how many bears were hiding in the den. To figure out the answer, we had to use the bears left. If we didn’t know the “tens pair”, we could use our finger or count on to figure it out.
The feast of St. Joseph is coming up on March 19th. Joseph was Jesus’s father here on earth. He was took care of Jesus here on Earth just like our dads take care of us. As we colored his picture in our saint book, we watched a short video about his life.
Friday:
Today we listened to the story The Rainbow Fish. The rainbow fish bragged about his beautiful shining scales and lost all of his friends. When he visited the wise old octopus, he told him to give away some of his scales. When he did, he was happier and his friends came back. Throughout the story, we talked about how Rainbow Fish feels. He has lots of emotions. We also talked about giving things away and helping those who need it. We determined Rainbow Fish did just what Jesus wants us to do. We talked about different things we can do especially now during Lent.
We also we made a rainbow fish pictures. We each got an outline of a fish. We had to glue on different colored scales and shiny scales! Just like the end of the story. Then we watched the Rainbow Fish Movie. We determined it was just like the book.