March 22nd Five for Friday & 2 Easter Freebies!

It's been a super busy week! Here's a quick look at what we've been doing...

...there are links to two Easter freebies at the bottom of the post! :) 

Be sure to check out Doodle Bugs and link up! 

1. I taught my students how to draw a leprechaun. 

Side note - I love my SMARTboard, but some things are easier done on a white board. I'm happy to have both in my classroom!

2. We painted water color rainbows and made pots of gold for the leprechauns. 

3. We started our science unit on force and motion. They made ramps out of classroom books and measured how far each car rolled. Students conducted four test runs and wrote down their observations. 

If you're curious about those blue tape lines on the floor, check out my post about area. 

4. We made prayer journals in religion class. Directions are below!

1 - Cut a 9" x 12" piece of construction paper in half. 

2 - Add small pieces of lined paper to the inside. 

3- Fold construction paper in half and staple pages together.

4- Decorate the front cover.  

I'm assuming these were quick and easy to make. I actually didn't do any of the prep work for this project. My awesome amazing wonderful incredible teacher's aide did all the work. Do you have a teacher's aide? I don't know what I would do without her in my classroom every day. She literally saves me hours of work each week!

5. We're currently writing a class non-fiction book about the ocean. Each child chose his/her own topic to research. Look at them putting non-fiction text features to use - diagrams, labels, facts, different types of print. These are the first drafts of their pages. We'll work on revising, proofreading and publishing next week. 

If you made it all the way to the bottom, feel free to grab the Easter ABC Order freebies. 

Click here for religious words and here for general Easter and spring words. 

Heather

Geometric Solids Museum - Math Monday Blog Hop

I'm linking up with Cindy for the Math Monday Blog Hop.

As stated in Friday's post, we've been learning about geometric solids in math. To begin the lesson, I taught the class about the six basic geometric solids - cones, cylinders, cubes, rectangular prisms, pyramids and spheres. After learning the characteristics of each shape, we went on a quick "Geometric Solids Scavenger Hunt" in the classroom to find examples of each type of solid. 

When our scavenger hunt was complete, I explained that we were going to set up a classroom museum to display different types of geometric solids. Their math assignment that night was to go on a scavenger hunt at home and bring in examples of geometric solids they found around the house. You can pick up a free copy of the scavenger hunt template here.

The next morning, we all gathered around the museum. Each student had to hold up his/her geometric solid for the class and identify the shape using its correct name. (I always tell my students we have to speak like mathematicians and use proper math vocabulary.) Then, each student placed his/her geometric solid in the designated section of the museum.

My students have spent a lot of free time visiting the museum and looking at all of the different examples. I want them to understand that math is not simply done with a pencil and paper. The concepts they are learning in math can and will be used in their everyday life. Geometric solids are not just the wooden shapes we learn about in math. We find them around the classroom, in our houses and inside the places where we shop. 

Some of my students insisted that we needed to display "Do Not Touch" and "No Flash Photography" signs like the real museums. I gave them some scrap paper and they created these signs to hang up. Shhhh!! Don't tell them I took pictures and broke one of the rules! 

Heather

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