Friday, March 15, 2013

March 15th Five for Friday!

It's Five for Friday time with Doodle Bugs again! 


1. We started our poetry unit in writing workshop. To begin the unit I had each student fill out a K-W-L chart. They had fun listing what they knew about poetry and what they wanted to learn. They'll fill out the learned section when we're completely finished with our study of poetry in a few weeks.  



2. We've been learning about area this week and we've had a lot of fun. Check out this post to see all of the fun activities we did. 


3. I often bring a green smoothie to school for a snack. My students think it looks disgusting and I constantly reassure them that you can't taste the spinach. I told them I would bring in my blender one day and whip up some homemade smoothies. Green smoothies for St. Patrick's Day! They loved this sweet and healthy treat on Friday afternoon. 


4. Have you heard of Pennies for Patients? It's a campaign we participate in every year to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year, my class wanted to bring in at least $300 to be a gold level class. Well, they exceeded their goal and actually brought in $421.05 in a little less than two weeks! They won a class pizza party for bringing in the most money in the entire school. They loved dropping their spare change in the box every morning! 


5. We set up our Geometric Solids Museum this week. I'll be blogging about this activity on Monday so be sure to check back! Do you have a math project you want to share? Be sure to link up with Cindy for the Math Monday Blog Hop! My students insisted we have a "Do Not Touch" and "No Flash Photography" sign like the real museums. So cute! 




How was your week? 

Heather

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Let's Learn About Area

We've been learning all about area the past few days. Here's what we did during math today: 

Yesterday afternoon I used blue painter's tape to mark off some areas of the classroom. It was so fun listening to my students when they walked through the door this morning. "Miss Schneider! Why is there tape all over the floor?!" I actually overheard one student say to a friend, "I bet this has something to do with area." 

Then, the students went around to each shape and recorded the area in square units. 


Next, we practiced finding the area of various shapes on the SMARTboard. If you haven't checked out IXL yet, do yourself a favor and get over there right now! It's an online math practice program that is completely organized by grade level. Click here to find the area game we played today. 


Finally, students created their own shapes using color tiles. They carefully traced around their unique shapes and their partners had to find the area using color tiles.  

How do you teach your students about area?  

Heather 

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Hiking, Dairy Queen & Stickers!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Reed over at Flying into First Grade for her "Let's Get Acquainted" Linky Party. The rules? Tell us three things about yourself using your initials. 


H- Hiking! 

These pictures were taken on one of my favorite trails in Lake Tahoe last summer. Beautiful! 




D- Dairy Queen!

I worked at Dairy Queen all through high school and a few summers during college. I loved my time at the DQ and I am proud to say I can still rock the famous curl atop my ice cream cone. I have great memories from my years at the Dairy Queen. I actually don't know the last time I've had ice cream from Dairy Queen, which is probably a good thing...

The owners always put up birthdays and exciting life events on the sign by the highway.This was taken nearly 5 years ago before I moved to San Francisco. 


S- STICKERS! 

Come on - what teacher doesn't love stickers? Check out these adorable stickers a student gave me. Seriously, have you ever seen a binder clip look so cute? 


Be sure to link up with Mrs. Reed

Heather