Music Around the World--Session 3--Africa

We had so much fun in our Music Around the World Class on Friday! We began our afternoon by reviewing our songs from last week. Ask your child to sing "It's a Small World" and "Kookaburra" for you! We are really working hard to learn the words for these two songs. After a quick review, we jumped into learning all about our new country of the day--Africa!

We were introduced to a child from Africa and learned about a day in her life on our Time for Kids website. Then, we were in for a fabulous treat--a visit from a real musician, Mr. Mark! Mr. Mark taught us about some of Africa's favorite instruments--drums! He played several different types of drums for us. We loved them all! Then, we enjoyed some traditional African music from the African Children's Choir. We were so inspired by these musical experiences that we decided to create our own African instruments--drums, tambourines, and shakers. Finally, we learned an African chant and our own rousing rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" complete with African drums, tambourines, and shakers! Here is a show of our afternoon! Check it out and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. We have also included some pictures from another great day! We hope that you enjoy them! Today was so much fun! We can't wait until next week! :) 

                                                            https://vimeo.com/327642136

3D Shapes

In math, we enjoyed a study of 3D shapes. We learned about spheres, cylinders, cubes, and cones. We talked about how many sides, faces, and corners these shapes have. We also tested them to see which ones can roll, stack, or slide. Finally, we participated in a 3D shape sort where we sorted some familiar foods by 3D shape, and we also went on a shape hunt around our school taking pictures of our 3D shapes using our iPads. Here are a few pictures of our fun shape sort and iPad hunt. 

Color Mixing

After enjoying the story, White Rabbit's Color Book, we had a chance to explore color mixing and see how you can combine primary colors to make a secondary color. We used vanilla icing and food coloring to first create primary colors, and then, we used these colors to make our secondary colors. Check out our video of this cool experiment:

https://vimeo.com/326923109

Music Around the World--Session 3--Australia

Welcome to our Music Around the World Club! I am so very excited that your child is joining me in this journey as we travel around the world exploring different countries and their unique music. I have two loves in life—music and children— so I could not be more thrilled to share this experience together with your child. We are going to learn to play instruments and sing songs from different countries. Then, we will share our music with you all at a Music Around the World Celebration Night in May. It is sure to be a night that you will not want to miss! Thank you again for allowing me the privilege to work with your child. I can not wait to share this experience together!

We began our musical tour around the world today by talking about the universal language of music and how it can touch all hearts and help all people. Then, we enjoyed singing "It's a Small World" together before flying around the world to Australia. 

The land down under had a lot to offer us! We learned about everything from koala bears to kangaroos and spent a "day in the life" of a girl from Australia on the National Geographic for Kids website. We were also introduced to two of Australia's favorite instruments--bilmas and digeridoos. After listening to one of Australia's traditional songs featuring these instruments, we made our very own bilmas and digeridoos. Boy were they cool too! Finally, we began learning the Australian song that we are going to perform, Kookaburra. It is a silly song that will make you giggle and laugh, while allowing you to soak up the unique sounds of the digeridoos and the bilmas. Here is a show of our first day together. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about our first week in Music Around the World!

https://vimeo.com/325970574

Fun Run :)

What a fun day we had running in our school's Fun Run! With each lap that we ran, we earned money for our school, which we plan to use to help make some improvements around our school! After the Fun Run, we enjoyed our movie reward and super cool sunglasses. These are the prizes that we won from our fundraising efforts. Here is an exciting video from our day! Check out how much fun we had and leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

                                                        https://vimeo.com/325923301

Movie Reward

Sunglasses Surprise

Paper Boxes and Subtraction Stories

We completed our science unit on paper this week by exploring different ways that we could change paper. This included an opportunity to explore paper boxes, paper recycling, and paper/wood creations. We also discussed why it is important to recycle and conserve paper, in order to save our trees. Check out our show of our experiments and pictures from our art projects below. Our kids were super creative!
                                                         https://vimeo.com/325917171

Finally, we had the wonderful opportunity to explore how we can use paper to create art. We enjoyed creating our own wood and paper creations. Here are some pictures from our art experiences: 

In math, we have been working hard to solve subtraction story problems, using model drawing. This is the math program that they use in Singapore. Research has shown it to be very effective. Model drawing is a way for children to not only solve a story problem but to be able to prove why the answer is true. In order for our students to have a solid foundation in number sense, we find the ability to fully explain your reasoning behind your answer to be a very important skill. Model drawing allows our students the opportunity to practice doing this. Below you can see how we were able to solve problems that we created on our own using the model drawing strategies.