Once inside and hands were washed, the class listened to the rest of the James Herriot story, "Moses the Kitten". Our farm has had an increase in mice over the last few weeks so we may be adding extra barn cat rescues, and this story was a perfect fit! In the story, the kitten is adopted by a momma sow. I told stories of how different animals here on the farm have adopted other baby animals over the years. The kids love hearing all of those crazy stories! At home, they will have a creative writing prompt that deals with animals adopting other animals.
Last week, the class learned about how technology has made things like trimming cows' hooves easier and less stressful. At home, they imagined what new technology would be like in the future! They had some pretty awesome inventions, and there were some pretty spoiled cattle!
Next, I used pasture fencing to teach the concept of perimeter and area. At first, we discussed how to measure perimeter using simple numbers. Once they all grasped the idea, we talked about calculating area. Because many of the students were not yet multiplying, I gave them 1"x1" squares of paper to use. They created little "pastures" on their paper. Then, they each worked on calculating their own perimeter and area. My goal here was to help them understand the difference between length and area. Hopefully, they will remember this lesson once they reach these type lessons in their individual math curricula!
After lunch, the students took out their grammar cards. They reviewed nouns, including common and proper nouns. Then, they discussed the definition of a verb. I taught them some motions that will make it easier to remember the four types of verbs! The class scattered throughout the room to work on an action verb collage. They rummaged through magazines to find pictures that represent action verbs. They glued them onto their sheet and labeled them. When we work on activities like this, I help them to spell words correctly by creating a class "word wall". As they come up with words that they need help with, I write them and keep them up on the board. Hopefully using sight, sound, and hands to write the words will help them to remember them! The more senses, the better for learning!
Next, the class was given their next grammar card: state of being verbs. They learned that state of being verbs are the more boring of all verbs. They simple state that something exists! The kids learned a chant to help them remember the state of being verbs. They'll be practicing them at home so that we can work with them next week.
Everyone seems to be liking our new book! Our characters are now lost in the jungles of Costa Rica. The class was able to recognize MANY animal species that could be added to their field guides! Most students are really doing a great job with researching and bringing in cool facts about topics that interest them from the reading! They were excited to share information about and pictures of howler monkeys, poison dart frogs, bushmaster snakes, the Osa Peninsula, and more. We reviewed the vocabulary words from chapters 1-3, and next week we will be working on an activity with words from both weeks.
We have been learning about Central American countries. I was so very impressed with how well they remembered the locations of different countries from the videos! Any time you can use little funny sayings, songs, or rhymes to help remember information, it helps it to stick! We went through and talked about the different Central American counties and highlighted them on individual maps. We also learned the capitals of each. We will be zooming in on some of the key countries over the next two weeks!
During science, we reviewed the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryote. I'm not interested in learning each part of the cell at this point, but we did need to understand a few concepts about cells in order to understand how these organisms are classified. First, I explained the role of cell membranes. The class learned that animal cells have membranes and can have irregular shapes, but plant cell have a more rigid cell wall. The class learned about the nucleus and labeled it on a diagram. We did not talk about the different organelles, but I just wanted them to understand that the cells of some organisms do have membrane-bound organelles. They learned the prefix "uni-", as in unicycle, and unicorn. This made the concept of unicellular and multicellular organisms much easier to understand! Finally, we talked about the meaning of prokaryotes (no nucleus or organelles) and eukaryotes (have a nucleus and organelles). We will be learning about the six kingdoms at home and discussing them in detail in upcoming weeks.
The class headed outside for a little nature investigation. Each student mentally "gathered" three living things that were outside here at the farm. They had to remember these three organisms and talk about them in class. We made different columns and grouped the different living things as each child shared their three. Then, I shared one of my own. I took a pipet and sucked up a little bit of stagnant water from outside. Then, we looked at it under a microscope to see small bits of algae and other small organisms that weren't visible with the naked eye. The kids loved using the microscope! It helped them to realize that the things that we are learning about aren't just academic information... it is everywhere!
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