Les aventures des jeunes

Field trips and special events Dinter's- We had a wonderful trip to Dinter's this week. We toured the greenhouses and the tropical area of the store. We learned what the plants need to grow. We also learned about ponds and the predators that eat Koi in the ponds. We also released ladybugs to help keep the plants healthy by eating the aphid. Of course we also transplanted tomatoes to a bigger pot. I hope that you were able to find a good home for the plants at your home. The plants will grow an Italian type tomato. Museum trip- We will be heading to the museum and Beacon Hill park on Tuesday. As we will be walking and eating outside, please pack layers as well as a hat for your child so that we are prepared regardless of the weather. At the time of writing the temperatures are supposed to be cool, like they were at the beginning of this week.  At the museum, we will be focusing on the second floor, the Natural gallery as it matches well with the science curriculum

Subtraction We started subtraction this week. We describe subtraction as one big group separating into two other groups. Like our definition of addition, this definition usually stays true even when applied to negative numbers. The goal is to lay the math foundation in grade 1 and 2 that does not have to be relearned as the children deal with negative numbers, absolute values and the imaginary number set (if and when they do calculus!) We spent a few days playing with toys as is shown in the pictures to help solidify this concept. This is something you can definitely do at home! We are now working with cuisinaire rods to demonstrate that subtraction is the difference between 2 numbers. We are beginning to write math equations for subtraction from 10. We will expand to equations from 15 and then 20 over the next week or so.  Story writing We spent this week talking about a time when we were hurt. You may have heard about how I hit my chin on the side of my cous