Earth Day!

We celebrated Earth Day this week on Monday, where students brainstormed ways we can help the Earth stay healthy!

Students then created a craft and wrote what they would do to help the Earth.

 

On Friday, students shared their continents.  They were very impressive!  Students really enjoyed doing this project and I was pleased by all the creativity they put into it.  We proudly displayed them in the hallway for others to see.

Did your child come home wearing coins about China?  That was our review this week on what we've learned!  Did you know Chinese coins had holes punched in them so that travelers could wear them around their neck to avoid being robbed?  Students had a good time creating coins that reflected their knowledge of Ancient China.  This week, we'll be studying Ancient Egypt - students are excited to learn about the sphinx, pyramids, and mummies!

High Flying Fractions and a Trip Around the World

While I was sorry to see our "food fractions" go, we are enjoying our display of our fraction kites outside our room from our last math unit.  We are currently working on regrouping with both addition and subtraction.  Students have learned how to estimate (to the nearest 10) and add, as well as how to regroup with adding ("the tens know how to party").

 We've also worked hard these past two weeks not only learning about where our continents are but WHAT they are like!  I'm sure you've seen the books coming home this week, but students have also been having some hands-on experience by viewing videos, pictures, and representations of animals found on the particular continent.  We've also read books about different places and even got a sneak peek of our next unit on Egypt and China! 

Friday, we brought home maps we created about places in the world, as well as places in the United States we need to learn.  Having this will help your child review for our "places" test this week!

Finally, we have some special visitors in our classroom and are watching them develop into butterflies.  Late this week, we noticed they were heading up to the top to form their chrysallis!  We're so excited to see the changes that will come about in a couple of weeks! :)

Finding An Appetite for Fractions

It's amazing what you can fit into 4 days and a 2hr delay! :)

This week, our focus in math was on fractions, and we had quite the "appetite" for it!

 

 

We used pizzas to discuss parts of a whole.  There's a great video for that (and for parts of a set) on our math wiki site (link on our webpage) that we watched.  Students then created an order for pizza and "made it", complete with box! 

After reading a great book called The Lion's Share, we also made pies for different kinds of animals. Students then cut their pies into the number of pieces so that each animal could get one slice and created a fraction.

 

Today, we discussed parts of a set and used doughnuts (a whole dozen!) as an example, creating an order and making the doughnuts.

 

Quite the "Fraction Foodcourt"!

We also spent time in our garden today, planting and dreaming of the time when we'll be able to taste our harvest!

 

 

In addition, we did an egg hunt, where students had to follow directions to find their eggs (face north, take 3 steps, turn south, etc.).  We also tried to help a bunny find his friend following similar directions, but it seemed to be a bit harder on paper than real life!

  

I want to wish everyone a happy, fun, and safe Spring Break and Easter!  See you in a week! :)

A Lot of Green!

With St. Patrick's Day and our plants unit, we've seen a lot of green in our classroom lately!

Last week, students wrote to the leprechaun using correct friendly letter format in order to avoid our room being "trashed" by the leprechaun.  It worked!  He left students a treasure hunt where they had to solve math problems in order to get to the "pot of gold" (clover stickers and Rolos!). 

We've also been finishing up our plant unit by decorating our window with lima bean seeds.  We're hoping to see them sprout soon and watch how the roots develop.  I just hope the cold weather lately hasn't put our seeds back to sleep!  We've also been getting our school garden ready to plant!  Check out what we learned about soil and earthworms!

Here are a few other things we've been up to:

Please make sure to send in books for our book exchange (thank you to the parents who already have!).  Stay warm and I hope we're able to avoid our early spring/late winter storm! :(

A Few Famous Americans....Including Dr. Seuss!

What a great week!  We started the week finishing our animal unit and students created a "graffiti wall" using a "mind dump."  What exactly does that mean?  It means they took all the information from their mind about animals, life cycles, habitats, and adaptations and drew pictures and wrote information on bulletin board paper!  It was a fun way to review and brought out the students' creative side!

In the past couple of weeks, we've also finished contractions and sent a shout out to the end of winter with a snowball fight and Valentine's Day.

This week, we also shared our Famous American projects.  We had 9 Jackie Robinsons (!), 4 Helen Kellers, a Billie Holiday (and we listened to her music as well!), Albert Einstein, Morgan Garrett (inventor of the traffic signal), Thomas Edison, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman.  I loved the variety of people we learned about!

We also celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with activities all week, including wockets in our pockets, making our own green eggs and ham poetry, what we would say to Horton if we were a Who, and creating a hat using a glyph about what we like to read!

Next week, we will be starting our plant unit (life cycle, parts, uses, and erosion) as well as our friendly letter unit.  It's also back to the homework packets!  Please make sure to keep practicing those math facts with your child, as well as telling time and counting money!  These are basic skills students need to master before third grade! ;)

Building Contractions and Famous Americans Project

This week, we've been focusing on contractions.  A fun way to do this and learn just how to combine the two words with a contraction was this activity.  We called it "Building Contractions."  We spelled out the two words, then had a "bossy apostrophe" tell certain letters to "sit down" and he/she took their cards, then put the apostrophe in that place.  It really helped students visualize exactly how contractions work!

For the next several weeks, homework will be the "Famous American Project."  A letter will be going home on Monday in the homework folder that gives more details about the project, as well as a "how to" sheet and a rubric.

Students may choose any famous American - not just the ones we studied - for the project.  It can be someone modern or from the past.  Below are pictures from some of last year's projects to give you an idea!  Please email or write a note if you have any questions on your child's choice.  I will try to help them narrow it down this coming week in class.

Last Week of January - Hello Mr. Groundhog!

Hard to believe it's the last week in January - make that WAS the last week!  (Today being February 1st).  Well, with two 2 hr delay days to start and end our week, we crammed a lot of things in!

Monday, we discovered fossils......

Tuesday, we got to explore different states (and one country!) as part of the Gingerbread Project!

 Wednesday was the 100th Day of School.....

We studied the Northern Lights on Thursday.....

Friday, we predicted whether the Groundhog will see his shadow or not on Saturday! (We'll check our predictions on Monday).

Can't wait to see what next week holds! :)