Our classroom is filled with excitement about the arrival of our caterpillars last week. When the children came in this morning they could hardly believe how much the caterpillars had already grown. We will be keeping track of the changes in our Butterfly Journal. Today we made perfectly symmetrical butterflies (and learned the meaning of symmetrical). After cutting out a a paper butterfly, we put small drops of paint on just one side of the wings and then folded the butterfly in half. When we opened it up, our butterflies had beautiful spots on each side that matched perfectly!

Our final Social Studies unit of the year is “Careers”. We did a lesson about six different categories of jobs. These categories are FInders (such as scientists and astronauts), Helpers (doctors, nurses), Entertainers, Builders (includes both construction workers and chefs, anyone who makes something), Leaders, and Movers (taxi drivers, truck drivers, pilots). We sorted jobs into these categories. Some jobs could be placed in more than one category, such as a pilot could be seen as a mover and a leader.  The children showed great thinking skills during this lesson.

Many parents have come to class to talk about their careers and some are still to come. After each presentation we make a “Characteristic Map” in which we list skills needed for this job and then choose a category for the job. Thanks so much for the wonderful presentations. The children love having parents come to class! The culmination for this unit will be “What Will You Be Day” on Thursday, May 24th. On this day your child will be asked to come to school dressed in a costume that shows what job he/she would like to have. These costumes do not need to be elaborate. You could just send a few props. For example, if your child wanted to be a chef, he/she could wear an apron and bring a big spoon.

We have started a new unit in math called “Sorting and Surveys”. The focus in this unit is on collecting and representing data, sorting data and objects, and using data to solve problems. To begin this unit each child had to make a picture that showed how many children are in our class. Many of the students glued 17 puff balls or pieces of pasta on the paper. One child made the number 17 out of puff balls and pasta and another drew 17 buttons.

Following this we did a lesson in which we discussed how many noses were in our class. After counting our noses and finding there were 17, we made a chart of other body parts that there were 17 of in our class. When some children suggested eyes or arms I placed these on a separate list to be looked at the next day as the next day’s lesson was on eyes.

During the eye lesson we first had two students actually count how many eyes are in our class while we stood on the edge of the rug. After discovering that there were 34 eyes, I asked how many arms there were. Only a few children immediately related this to the eyes and knew that it would be 34, so we also physically counted arms. Then we made a list of body parts that come in two’s. Following this we made a class eye chart in which each child drew his/ her eyes on a sticky note and we affixed these to a long chart. I then asked how many eyes were on the chart and again only a few children knew that it would be 34, most needed to count the eyes on the chart. The chart we made after the eye chart had a column for “people” and a column for “eyes”. We filled in the rows one by one. I wrote “1″ on the first row for people and then we put “2″ in the eye row. The next row had a “2″ for people and a “4″ for eyes. We did this until the whole chart was filled in and then discussed the differences in the columns. This is the beginning of the children learning to count by two’s.

In our most recent math activity the children were given a note card for each person in their family. They were asked to write the name of each family member and then draw his/her eyes on the card. All of the cards were put in an envelope with the child’s name on the outside. We used these envelopes for a wonderful activity called “Eyes at Home”. In this activity the children each had a paper that had three columns, one column for the name on the envelope, one for the number of people in the family, and one for the number of eyes in the family. The children learned that if they counted the cards they would know how many people were in the family, and then they could count the total number of eyes on the cards. They truly enjoyed this activity and did a wonderful job.

We had a wonderful Earth Day celebration. The students made fantastic and creative junk sculptures. Click on the video below and you will hear them tell you about their creations. Please be patient after you click on the video because it takes quite a bit of time for it to begin. Enjoy!

Earth Day 2012

Science

We have continued our States of Matter unit in science.When shown some mysterious blue crystals, the children were asked to guess what would happen if water were added to the crystals. The children made many wonderful guesses such as the crystals would melt and the water would turn blue, or that the crystals would sink or float.  After making our guesses, we added the water and checked back in ten minutes, 40 minutes, and one day later. Each time the crystals had become bigger and softer, soaking up the water. The children enjoyed feeling the gooey crystals. We have left the goo out in a bin and the crystals are slowly getting smaller again. We will be learning that this is due to evaporation and that the water is changing from a liquid to a gas.

Investigating gases started with a very simple activity in which I held up two zip-lock bags that appeared to be empty. I asked the children what was in the bags and some knew that although we could not see anything, air might be in the bags. When I laid a paper on top of each of the bags, the second bag would not lay flat, but held the paper up off the table. When I asked the children why, they could articulate that it was because there was air in the second bag.

In order to understand that hot air rises, I held a paper spiral above a source of heat and this caused the spiral to spin. When I pulled it away from the heat source it ceased spinning. We had a discussion about why this happened and it helped the children understand that hot air rises. We discussed that this is how a hot air balloon works. Much more dramatic was an experiment with a plastic bottle with a balloon attached to the top. When the bottle was plunged into hot water the balloon popped up immediately and when it was plunged in ice water the balloon immediately deflated. The children loved this demonstration of hot air expanding and rising.

Reading

We have learned many new sight words in reading. They are “who”, “they”, “are”, “she” and “good”. We are using our new vowel, short e, to build the  -et and -en word families. For example the -et word family would include words such as let, get, met, and net. Our new consonants are “v” and “j”. Thank you so much for the interesting mystery bag items for these letters!

We have begun to work on writing stories in our journals. The children have become experts at leaving spaces between their words, so now we will be working on writing and punctuating multiple sentences. It is incredible to see the growth that has been made in the area of writing this year!

Math

We have moved on to furthering our computational skills by repeating some of our past activities, but stepping them up a little. We took “Making Tile Arrangements” to a further level. After the children made arrangements of five, six, seven, eight, nine, or ten square tiles, they reproduced their designs on graph paper. The new step was to look for groupings in the design. For example if their design had two rows of three tiles they would circle two groups of three and write 3 on each group, or if they understand addition notation they might write 3+3=6. Either way of recording this would be correct. Some children would write the numbers one through six with one number on each tile. Some children would look at this design as three groups of two, circle those groups, and write 2 on each group. This activity really makes the children focus on many different ways to make a number. The most common comment I get from the children when it is math time is “I love math!” There is nothing like having fun and learning at the same time!

Science

We also have begun to learn about how strong the “skin” on water is. I added pennies to a cup filled to the top with water. Before starting this the children guessed how many pennies we could put in before the water spilled over. Most of the guesses were from 10-35. To the children’s amazement the water did not overflow until we had added 50 pennies! The reason this happens is that the molecules on the top of the water hold together strongly, forming the “skin”. We also found that soap weakens this skin. While a paper clip floats easily on top of the water, if I added some liquid soap to the water it quickly sank to the bottom because the soap weakened the surface of the water. We also examined the shape of drops of water on waxed paper and learned that the water forms the rounded droplets because of the strength of the “skin”.

To explore how a liquid can change to a solid and back again we froze a plastic container filled with water. To our surprise the next day when we took the jar out of the freezer it had cracked. This led to a discussion about how water expands when it freezes and that this is why sidewalks sometimes get cracks in them. The children also loved checking the jar throughout the day and watching it melt. It still had not all melted when it was time to go home on Friday!

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break. It looks like the weather will be fine!

Math

We have been exploring our geoblocks, which have many different sizes and shapes such as pyramids, prisms, and cubes. We did an activity called Matching Faces in which the children had to find two geoblocks that had one side in common even though the shapes were different. We then shared our findings with each other. We also made 3-D shapes with play dough.

We completed our math unit in geometry with some wonderful activities. In a game called “Build a Block” the children had to construct a shape exactly like one of the larger geoblocks using smaller ones. They then connected these all together to make a road. This involved creative thinking as the relationship between the larger and smaller shapes had to be considered to keep it the same height and width using many different sized blocks.

Another geometry activity was “Geoblock Match-up”. In this game a gameboard with outlines of the shapes of different sides of our 3-D geoblocks was used. The children had to find a block with a side that matched each outline on the board. This required careful examination of every side of each block, looking at the size and shape of each side. The children truly enjoyed these last activities in our Shapes unit. They especially loved using the 3-D shapes in our geoblock set.

Science

We started our science unit on the States of Matter with a sink or float activity. The children were asked to guess whether several different items would sink or float if put in water. First everyone voted and the vote was tallied. Then the item was put in the water. The items were a rock, a plastic button, a stick, a pinecone, a sponge, a plastic jar with no lid, the same plastic jar with a lid, and a pencil. Many children knew that the plastic jar would fill up and sink with no lid, but would float if the lid were on.

In an experiment called “Floating Liquids” we put oil, molasses, and water in a clear cylinder to see what would happen. First I had the children form an hypothesis about what would happen. They had to record this hypothesis on a recording sheet with two pictures of a glass jar. In the first picture of the jar the children drew what they thought would happen and in the second picture they recorded what they actually observed when I poured the three liquids together. We found that it formed three layers with the molasses on the bottom, the water in the middle, and the oil on top. This is an early experiment in density of liquids. We then tried to float a plastic tile in this liquid. It sank to the level of the top of the water, but not to the bottom.

In a very challenging activity the children were asked to take a piece of play dough and form it into a shape that would float. Many children tried such shapes as a solid sphere, a thin cylinder, or just a flat piece. I asked one of the children why he/she had formed the play dought into a long thin cylinder. He/she replied that he/she knew a pencil would float and so he/she made the play dough into the same shape as a pencil. What clever thinnking! After several tries I showed them a small plastic boat and we discussed why it might float. Many of the children then tried to form their play dough into a boat shape. Even with this shape, it was very difficult to get the play dough to float as sometimes the children made the sides too thick so that is was too heavy, or they did not seal the shape tightly and it immediately sprung a leak.  A few of the shapes finally managed to float for a few seconds and we declared victory!

Math

In a game called “Fill the Hexagon” the children used two dice that had sides with pictures of the hexagon, triangle, diamond, and trapezoid shapes of the pattern blocks. After throwing the two dice they then fill in a sheet with outlines of six hexagons, using the shapes on the dice. The children continue to take turns until one of them has totally filled in the six hexagons. They soon learn that it is an advantage to get a hexagon or a trapezoid because this fills the shapes in more quickly. Following several days of having the opportunity to play this game during math workshop the whole class discussed different ways to make a hexagon using pattern blocks. I am proud to say that your children came up with all seven ways a hexagon can be made with the pattern blocks. Through the enjoyment of playing the “Fill the Hexagon” game they truly learned quickly.

We have moved on to 3-D shapes and have been exploring shapes such as sphere, cube, cone, pyramid, cylinder, and rectangular prism. The children went on a shape hunt in our room looking for these shapes. They found many cylinders such as markers, glue sticks, a wet wipe container, our garbage can, and some of our wooden blocks. The children are incredibly observant! I hope you enjoyed your shape hunt at home. Please remember to return your sheet as we will be using it in a lesson at school.

Social Studies

We finished our unit on maps with several wonderful learning activities. To begin to understand the concept of north, south, east, and west, I put up signs on the walls of our room for each direction. We then had fun doing things like skipping to the south side of the room, crawling to the east side of the room, and so on.  After this we took turns giving directions to a classmate to help them get from one location to another. One of the students stood in the middle of the room and I asked the class to think of directions to help her/him get to the door. Directions such as, “Take four steps east, then six steps south”, were given until the student had reached her/his destination. We repeated this several times until the children became more familiar with directions.

After observing a globe we discussed what there is more of on our earth, water or land. All of the children thought there is more water. To demonstrate this I had the children pass the globe around and we recorded whether each child’s right thumb was touching land or water when they had the globe passed to them. Every child found that his/her right thumb was touching water. I was the only one whose thumb was touching land when the globe was passed to me.

Finally, we glued our pictures to a large world map. I glued pictures of the children to the country of their ancestry. Then for the grand finale of our maps unit we went to Google Earth and typed in our school address. The children were fascinated as Google Earth quickly zoomed from a picture of the earth to our very own Avoca West Elementary School.

The children thoroughly enjoyed Beach Day as you can see by the pictures below. When they arrived in the morning there were beach balls on the rug to play with, surfer music to dance to, and tropical smelling lotion to rub on their hands if they chose to do so. Our room smelled like a tropical paradise!

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Math

The class worked together to make a very large shape mural using squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, and circles. They added shapes to a background of land, water, and sky. Some of the things they made were; triangles made into sailboats,  rectangles became buildings, fire trucks, limousines, and buses, circles were jellyfish and hot air balloons and ovals became fish, clouds, airplanes, and sharks.  The children drew city streets and even drew a fire for the fire truck to go to.  A project like this really helps the children concentrate on the characteristics of each shape. You will find pictures of the children working on the shape mural below.

We also did challenging pattern block puzzles. These were outlines that had to be filled in with a variety of pattern blocks. There is more than one way to solve each puzzle. Because we had spent time in free exploration of the pattern blocks, this was easier to do. The pattern block shapes are hexagon, trapezoid, square, triangle, and two different diamond shapes. They are made so that a hexagon can also be made with two trapezoids, six triangles, three diamonds, or a various arrangements of these shapes and the diamond can also be made with two of the triangles. They begin to see the relationship between all of the shapes when they do this activity.

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Math

We began our Geometry unit in math. It focuses on 2-D and 3-D shapes. We started this unit by looking around our classroom for objects that were square, round, rectangle, oval, triangle, or diamond in shape. The children then chose one shape and made a picture of something in the real world that contains this shape. The children were very creative. Using the square shape children made robots and a house. Using the circle they made flowers, clocks, the moon, the sun, wheels, bouncing balls, and a person’s head. The oval was used to make a hyena and the rectangle was used for more robots.

Following this there were lessons that included making shapes with ropes of clay and making shapes on geoboards using rubber bands. After making the clay shapes we brought them to the rug and sorted them into shapes that curved, shapes with three sides and shapes with four sides. We wrote lists comparing a circle to a rectangle and a triangle to a square. These activities help the children focus on the characteristics of each shape.

Language Arts

We have learned three new sight words, “see”, “two”, and “what” and the consonants sounds “h” and “l”. We enjoyed the wonderful story Snowmen at Night in which a boy imagines what his snowman does all night with the other snowmen. Ask your child to tell you about this book. We made our own class book about what snowmen do at night. It will be coming home for you to share with your child.

In Language Arts we have learned the new sight words, “you”, “do”, “look” and “one” and the short “o” sound. We read a poem called “First Snow” in which bushes were described as popcorn balls after a snow. Following this we made a class book about many things that snow looks like. Your child will be bringing this home to share with you. We enjoyed the big book Winter Lullaby, which was about where animals go and what they do in the winter. The illustrations in this book were beautiful. We continue to work on our word blending and are very successful in our small reading groups.

We have begun a study of maps in Social Studies. We read two wonderful books, As the Crow Flies and Me on the Map. In the former book the children were introduced to the concept of maps by seeing the world from the view that birds would see from above. After describing what the crow saw a map was drawn to illustrate this.  In Me on the Map we started out in a little girl’s room. She drew a map of her room, then her house, her street, her town, her state, her country, and finally the whole world. Each map showed where the girl was on the map.

I drew a map of our room on the Promethean board and then the children were divided into groups of three or four and given a large piece of paper to draw their own map of our room. I was so pleased with how well they worked together and how many details about our room they put on the maps.

In Math we have been playing some wonderful games to build our computational skills. In one of these games, called Collect 15 Together, a dot cube with sides that have one, two, or three dots on each side is used. The children play this in pairs. They take turns rolling the dot cube and then take as many pennies as the number indicates. This continues until they have collected at least 15 pennies. This game helps the children work on their adding on skills as they begin learning that they do not have to recount the pennies each time, but if they know they have five pennies and roll a two, they can just say five and then count on two more (saying six, seven) to figure out the total.

Another similar game is called Build On. In this game a deck of cards with the numbers one through seven and a dot cube are used. The children play this in pairs. The first child turns over a card and puts that many pennies on a ten-frame. The second child rolls the dot cube and adds one, two, or three more pennies to the ten-frame. The children then figure out how many pennies there are altogether. This also builds their adding on skills, which are so important for addition.

In yet another game to strengthen these skills (this one played without a partner) the children roll two different dot cubes, one with one to six dots on each side and one with one to three dots on each side. They then count how many dots there are in all and record it on their Roll and Record sheet.  They are always excited to see which number “wins” (the sum that they roll most often). This also builds number writing skills.

One of the most popular games yet is Racing Bears. In this game there are four racetracks that have ten spaces. A bear counter is placed at the start of each and a honey pot is placed at the end.  The children roll the one to three dot cubes and move the four bears down the tracks. The bears must reach the end exactly to get a honey pot. When ten honey pots are collected the game is over. This is a collaborative game with no “winner”. Both children win when the ten pots have been collected. In order to collect ten pots the bears must move back to the start and a new honey pot is put at the end each time one is captured. Also the children are allowed to split their move. For example, if a bear is just one space from the honey pot and a child rolls a three, he/she can move that bear one space and move another bear the other two spaces. This adds to the strategy of the game. Splitting moves is actually difficult for many children. This game also helps build the skill of carefully moving the pieces one space at a time without counting the space they start in or skipping a space.

Another game, “Double Compare”, has us adding two amounts and deciding which is the larger set of numbers. This game is played in pairs with a deck of cards that have a number and also a set of objects showing that amount on each card.  Each child draws two number cards and then adds the two numbers together to find the sum. Most children need to count the objects on both cards to figure this out. The child with the larger sum says, “me”. Sometimes the children find they do not need to add the numbers to tell who has the greater amount. For example if one student has a 5 and a 2, and the other student has a 5 and a 4, some children are able to figure out that since they both have 5 and this is the same, they only need to look at the other number card they each have to see who has the greater amount. This is truly higher-level thinking!

A game that has us both adding and subtracting is “Build It, Change It”. This game is played in pairs with a deck of cards that have the numbers 1-10. First one child turns over a card and puts that many pennies on a ten-frame. Then the second child turns over a card and changes the amount on the ten-frame to the amount on this second card. If the second number is larger the children must add on and if the second number is smaller they must remove some pennies.

Another game that uses both adding and subtracting is, “One More, One Fewer”. In this game a card is turned over and that many pennies are put on a grid. Then a cube is rolled that has sides that either have -1 or +1.  If a -1 is rolled the children must remove one penny and if a +1 is rolled they add one, recording the answer each time. In this game the children are exposed to the plus and minus signs for the first time this year. The children truly enjoy playing these wonderful math learning games.

We have all been enjoying using our five senses in Science. In an activity using our sense of taste the children had four different items to taste, candy corn, a saltine cracker, a slice of lemon, and some cocoa powder. These represented the four main tastes, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. As the children tasted each item they then drew a picture of that food in the correct box on their recording page. While children always know what sweet, salty, and sour taste like, they are very surprised when the delicious smelling cocoa powder is bitter. Of course, no one was required to taste an item if they did not feel comfortable doing so. All of the children really enjoyed this activity.

We completed our unit on the five senses with a game using only our sense of touch. Many pairs of small items were put in a tube sock and the children had to reach in, pull one out, and then reach in again to find its matching piece using only their sense of touch. They did this until they had matched all of the pairs. What fun!