Dynamic Opportunities Newsletter

MATH

This week in the Imagineer’s Room and the Blue Room we learned about number lines.  We made our own then talked about the numbers on them. The Blue Room ended class by playing with Magnatiles and talked about the different shapes and colors.

The Imagineer’s Room learned how to count one less, one more, and two more, two less,etc. on their number lines. We will continue to use these in class for the rest of the year.
 
The Creative Arts Room and Steam Room practiced making fractions.  Monday we practiced making fractions with a  Hershey’s candy bar.  Tuesday we focused on 1/2 and whether both sides were equal.  Both days we finished class with a round of Yam Slam.  We will continue working on fractions this week as well as finishing class with Yam Slam.

LANGUAGE ARTS

In Language Arts this week, we worked on the language that is used in puzzles to lead you to your solution OR the language that is used to lead you to a wrong answer! The students had a good time discovering “What are you?”

Next week we will not have Language Arts since Monday is a project day and Thursday is Exhibition Day. 

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week in social studies, based on our project unit theme of escape rooms, we learned about the infamous escape from Alcatraz prison in 1962. We explored FBI archive files and images, watched the trailer for the movie “Escape from Alcatraz”, and learned how the 3 escapees managed to pull off what was said to be impossible.

TECHNOLOGY

In Technology last week students continued to work on their passion projects as well as furthering their coding skills by using Scratch cards to learn how to code more complex actions in the program. Students also worked heavily on their typing skills in the second period. Based on their own individual level, students worked on everything from typing full paragraphs, sight words, to individual letters. In technology this coming week students will complete their passion projects and work more on creating their own alphabets to write secret codes online.

SCIENCE

In Science this week we continued with our plant unit. Students studied ecosystems, recognizing that plants need air, water, light, space, and food that may be found in the environment. We studied how we need plants and where they can be found in different parts of North Carolina and the world. The upcoming week we will be digging deeper in the plant life cycle, cells of a plant, and to research plants that are native to NC. 

In STEM during this unit we will be making one large terrarium for school as well as students making an individual one to take home. I will be emailing a wish list for this STEM project in the next few weeks. 

MUSIC & MOVEMENT and PE

Last week in Music and Movement we worked with combination and key locks getting prepared for our upcoming Escape room project and in PE we enjoyed the beautiful weather with a stroll around the building and sidewalk chalk. This week in Music and movement we will continue working on our dexterity and rhythm with desk drumming and in PE we will start learning the fundamentals of soccer.

DAILY LIVING SKILLS

In daily living skills this past week, we worked on Cardinal directions. After introducing compasses, we went outside and wrote N, S,E and W. The students had to follow orders and end up in the right place. We had a chance to play with sidewalk chalk and draw our biggest compass rose! The students were really good at challenging each other. 

In life skills this coming week, we will be shopping at the school store and discussing how to restock and know what sold well. 

The students had a real life lesson in animal care this week. Mrs. Zobel brought her foster puppies in for the day. “Kate and Toby” had an amazing day at school. They were cuddled and snuggled. They were fed and pampered. I am so impressed with the way the kids did “good listening.”

The students were curious about what being a foster meant. Both puppies are up for adoption through CrisisDogsNC.