Mrs. Finney's
GT CLASSES 2025-26
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Welcome!
Welcome!
Overview
This is the website for Mrs. Finney's GT classes for the 2025-26 school year. I hope this will provide you with important information and resources to help you feel confident in what is happening in our class!
CHECK OUT FIELD TRIP PHOTOS UNDER THE 2ND GRADE TAB!
We are all obsessed with IDIOMS right now! 2nd grade is learning different bird idioms, while 3rd and 4th are exploring IDIOMS about food, and money. We are laughing at how many of our idioms reference a penny and most kids in the future won't even know what that means! :) One group of 4th graders said they are speaking their own "idiom language" to each other! I LOVE IT!
We love these idioms about geese!
What's good for the goose is good for the gander
Your goose is cooked (they loved this one!)
To kill the goose that lays the golden egg
A wild goose chase
What about these food related IDIOMS?
All sizzle and no steak
Don't cry over spilled milk
Didn't cut the mustard
Small potatoes
Brownie points
2nd Grade-Ornithology
Field Trip Week!
Here's what we are learning:
Forces of flight-lift, thrust, drag, and gravity
Types of feathers-Tail, downy, semi-plume, wing, and contour
Parts of a feather
Types of wing shapes and how each affects flight and movement
We examined different nests
Learned about spectrograms that give us a visual image of a bird's song. We played Birdsong Hero!
3rd and 4th grades-Survival
3rd and 4th grades-Survival
These last few weeks have been about navigation. Students completed a "scavenger hunt" using an Arkansas roads and highways map. We learned the parts of a compass and how to read one, wrote directions for someone to follow based on compass readings, and have studied topographic maps. We are finishing this section of our unit with a topo art activity!
Next week we will learn about signaling including using semophore flags, morse code, and other ways. In a couple of weeks, we will start our big simulation project or this unit! More to come on that soon!
Did you know that when wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995, they literally helped change the shape of the rivers? This video is fascinating! It reinforces how dependent we all are on each other!
Special event at the WAC May 12th-Doug Smith, Nat'l Geographic explorer and biologist will be speaking. He led the project that reintroduced the wolves to Yellowstone. https://waltonartscenter.org/tickets/series/10x10/the-wild-wolves-of-yellowstone/
As the students explored Yellowstone, we connected it to our survival unit by learning about 4 types of shelter:
tarp/rope
cave or rock outcropping
debris hut
lean to
Students worked to create mini versions of these shelters. Some classes had to use man-made materials because of the weather. Others collected materials outside and created their models. Check out some pictures under the grade level tabs.
We will get outside soon and actually practice making a tarp and rope shelter! They can put their knot tying and shelter knowledge to practical use!
This week starts navigation! We will learn how to read (and FOLD) an actual paper map, how to use a compass, and how to read topographical maps! Students will have a "map scavenger hunt" using an Arkansas road map, use their compass to answer orienteering questions, and create some "topo art". We are always busy in GT!
Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Overview
Social-Emotional Skills (Growth Mindset)
Thinking Skills
Robin Hood
Ornithology
Social-Emotional Skills (Executive Functioning skills; growth mindset)
Neurology
Survival
Social-Emotional Skills (Executive functioning; growth mindset)
Neurology
Survival
Check out your child's grade-level tab for more specific information about what we will be learning this year.
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