As I'm sure you've already heard, our classroom desk are set up in communities (Rural, Suburban, Urban). The idea was to tie in our Social Studies standards, which focus on communities, the citizens that live in the communities, and laws/government/jobs/etc for the community. Two weeks ago, your child started working on becoming experts about the community the sit at. We began with a simple video explaining the three types of communities and features/characteristics of each. From there, students read about a community that was the same as theirs. Using that knowledge, they set up a community diorama, named it, and wrote down features that make their community unique. The students had a lot of fun learning about their community and using their artistic abilities to create and name their own!
Last week we finished up division, using the book, The Doorbell Rang. I love this book and how much fun it is to teach my kiddos how to divide using repeated subtraction. The kiddos love being able to eat their manipulatives! LOL Most off all, it was fun watching them realize that they could write and solve a division problem, using only repeated subtraction and not having to use the cookies. They were very proud of themselves for being able to solve simple division equations abstractly.
