Measurement Fun!

We are currently working on measurement in math. Today we went on a little measurement hunt around the room. The children had the task of finding objects in our room of a variety of lengths in both inches and centimeters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hey, Little Ant

Hey, Little Ant, by Phillip and Hannah Hoose, lends itself perfectly for opinion writing!! We have been very focused on opinion writing this year in the new common core writing standards and have done a ton of work learning how to write an opinion paper. I used Hey, Little Ant to see if the kids could pull together everything that we have learned and write a true opinion piece using a hook, controlling idea, reasons to back up their opinion, linking words to connect their reasons and finally, end with a conclusion restating their opinion. Boy, did they impress me!!! First, we read the story which is about a boy and an ant going back and forth on reasons the boy should or should not step on the ant. At the end of the book, it leaves the reader hanging and lets the reader decide if the boy will step on the ant. We then brainstormed all of the reasons why he should or not step on the ant. Next, I sent the kids on their way to write their opinions. They did a great job thinking of reasons and including all of the required components of an opinion piece. To top it all off, we did this cute little project from Cara Carroll's blog.

 

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Miss Rumphius

We read Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney, this week in celebration of spring and Earth Day. This book also fits in perfectly with our new recycling program at AES. After painting beautiful lupines, we brainstormed ways on how we could make the world more beautiful. This wonderful book teaches us many important lessons.

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Learning How to Use Book Creator

At a conference this summer I learned about a great app called Book Creator. I came home right away and taught my daughter how to use it on her iPad and I have really been looking forward to the day I would have an iPad in my classroom so I could share it with my students. That day finally came today! We learned how to use it and started to write non-fiction books about rocks, our current science unit. Stay tuned to see our final products!

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"Knuffle Bunny"

We have discovered Knuffle Bunny books in our classroom and have fallen in love with them! Mo Willems is the author and illustrator of these fabulous books. Two of these three books have won Caldecott Awards for their amazing illustrations. We completed a writing about if we have ever lost something just as Trixie lost her Knuffle Bunny and made a Knuffle Bunny glyph. (Thanks to Hope King)

Not one, but TWO new iPads for our classroom!!!!!

We are so fortunate in Room 2 to have gotten two new iPads thanks to all of the generous donations to our jog-a-thon! I have been busy setting them up tonight so we can use them for apps, research and to create projects starting tomorrow!!!!

What have we been up to???

There is so much going on in Room 2 right now and so much to accomplish before spring break in just two weeks!  Here is a peek into our classroom:

In the month of February, we learned about American heroes and focused on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Here are the adorable portraits the kids did of each plus a venn diagram that we did as a whole class comparing these two presidents. (Thanks to Deanna Jump)

We just finished a unit on fractions.  We made these fraction sundaes to help us reinforce the concept of a whole being divided into equal parts. (Thanks to Amy Lemons and The Teacher Wife for the great ideas!)

To celebrate Dr. Seuss Day on March 2nd, we read The Lorax, wrote about what we would do if we were given the last Truffula seed, did this cute guided drawing of The Lorax and last but not least, made Truffula Tree cupcakes!

In science, we are learning about rocks - the rock cycle and the three types of rocks; sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.

Check out these cute little guys!  (Thanks to the Cupcake for a Teacher) We are really into leprechauns right now and are pretty sure that a few might try and ransack our classroom.  We are prepared though because we wrote an informative paper on how to catch a leprechaun   On the anchor chart below you can see all of the adjectives we brainstormed to describe a leprechaun and the synonyms we used in our writing to make it more interesting.

We rock at multiplication!!!  We started this unit a week ago and the kids have already proved what brainiacs they are!  We are very focused on applying mutiplicaion scenarios to our real lives and understanding that multiplication means putting equal groups together.  This Multiplication Mushroom activity is just one of the hands-on ways we have been exploring this new skill. (Thanks to Amy Lemons)