Thirty-One Bags

If you would like to host a party and get some great bags/purses/organizational tools for FREE or 1/2 price, I can do catalog parties too!

Kristen

After looking through the first section on writing Informational texts, I knew this book would be perfect for our new IB unit on jobs, responsibilities, and community helpers.  The children have been working hard this week to write about a community helper that they have chosen.

We began by talking about ways that we can find information about topics we would like to write about.  Next, we moved on to writing down facts we thought we knew about our topic/community helper (we used firefighters as a whole class example) and learning about how to confirm those thoughts by using research materials (namely books).  We’ve spent the last two days looking in books to confirm facts we think we know and will continue to do that the rest of this week.

Here are the children hard at work, selecting appropriate research materials and writing down some new facts about their community helper.

As we work through this unit of writing, I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Kristen

This game was taken from an idea that was on the K-5 Math Teaching Resources page.  I modified it into a “Math talk” sentence (as suggested by Debbie Diller) for my Math Work Stations.  The two children working at this station each pick a card from their pile.  They turn it over and decide which number is less than the other and write those numbers in the appropriate blanks.  The “Math talk” page is inside a sheet protector (as are most of my math sheets so they can be reused).  The children write their answers with a dry-erase marker and erase with an old sock.

This game is also from the site mentioned above.  The children roll a die (1-6) or you can have them roll 2 dice if you would like them to practice larger numbers.  They then need to make a pile of chips that is less than that number, equal to that number, and a pile that is greater than that number.

This is an activity box that I got from Lakeshore.  There are 3 activity cards that come in this box and I’ve just put this card out so that the children can explore the 3D shapes before we talk about faces, edges, and vertices later this month.  The children predict what they think each shape will do before letting it move down the ramp, by making a check in one of the first two columns.  They then experiment with the 3D shapes and find out how the shapes actually get down the ramp.

The other two cards ask the children to identify the number of faces, edges, and vertices that each 3D shape has (those cards will be out in the next month).  This kit is nice because it comes with 3 sizes of each of the shapes (small, medium, and large), so that I could make three different Math Work Stations from this one kit (now that I’ve typed that, I think I will!   ).

In this partner game (also inspired by K-5 Math Teaching Resources), the children learn about quickly reading a ten frame.  One partner shows a ten frame and the other student writes the number they thought they quickly saw on that ten frame on the dry erase board.

This game is directly from K-5 Math Teaching Resources.  It’s called Shake 5 and Spill.  If you are familiar with Shake the Beans (I’ve posted on that before), this is very similar.  The children have 5 counters in a cup and they shake them up.  They then spill them out and using the recording sheet (provided on the K-5 Math site), record their way to make 5.  You can see in the picture that we are using red and yellow crayons to help represent the colored sides of the counters.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Kristen

We also had a silent auction in conjunction with this event.  The children wanted to do something to help our local Habitat for Humanity after our field trip there in early November.  We decided to created gingerbread homes to auction off to raise money!  To date, our total is around $600!  Not bad for a 20 minute silent auction!   Here are some pictures of the creation of the g-bread homes…we had LOTS of parent help and knocked these out in about 2 hours!

During the day or two before the musical, we did lots of practicing on the risers and received some quick letters from the GBM which I forgot to take pictures of!!  We got letters from Brazil, Africa, Canada, and Russia.

When we visited Brazil, we learned about the legend of the dancing turtle and we made pattern block turtles.

In Africa,we learned about the coffee ceremony that takes place when children are adopted from Africa.  We also looked at coffee beans.

In Canada, we read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett and learned a little bit about the climate in Canada.

In Russia, we learned about The Mitten and used the printables from Jan Brett’s website to make drama props to help us retell the story.

To tie in some math, we measured the perimeter of a GBM using different math materials I already had in my classroom.  I traced a random GBM and then put the math materials in the copy machine to create the recording page.  The children rotated from table to table and measured the perimeter of the GBM.

This is the package we received when the GBM visited Israel.  We learned about the celebration of Hanukkah and read Mrs. Greenburg’s Messy Hanukkah.  We also talked about the Menorah and how all of the candles are important to the celebration of Hanukkah.  The GBM also brought us paper menorah’s to cut out and color.

Next, we went to Conner Prairie (our Living History Museum) and saw the gingerbread houses.  We also “chased” the GBM through Conner House, met the little old woman, and ventured to the barn to ask the animals if they had seen the GBM run through their barn.  Finally, we met up with the GBM in the main building and we got to have our picture taken with him!

Kristen

Here is the package that starts it all!  The GBM left us this package, some money, our passports, and a trail of cookie crumbs and gumdrops.  When we opened it, we found out that the GBM had taken our cookies (that we were supposed to make a graph with later in the day) and has gone looking for different customs and celebrations around the world.  He says he will be sending us more letters so that we can learn about the customs and celebrations as well.  He took the cookies so he would have something to eat on his journey.  Each time we get a letter, we are supposed to find that country on a map and after learning about a celebration or custom in that country, we write about it in our passport.

The second day (which was really two days after we got the 1st package), we got a letter and some books from Mexico.  My kids get excited every year when the package comes from Mexico because they know that the Monarch Butterflies we have spent so much time learning about in the fall are in Mexico waiting for winter to be over with.  The GBM even mentions them in this letter!  We also read Adelita (the Mexican Cinderella story) adn P is for Pinata to learn more about some celebrations that happen in Mexico.  We learned about Las Posadas, Cinco de Mayo (Mexico’s independence day, mostly celebrated in the U.S.), and Los dias de Muerto (day of the dead–Halloween).

The kids wanted to see if they could trick the GBM into coming back to visit so they could catch him, so we came up with this note…

Kristen

Kristen

The children have 10 frames for the numbers 11-19.  They lay one 10 frame out and make two rows of 5 frames.  Next, they put the number cards (labeled 11-19) above each one of the 10 frames.  Finally, they put the corresponding number of cubes on the 10 frame (based upon the number that was on the card).  Here you can see some of the 10 frames laid out and the number cards (although the children are still working on putting the cubes on).  This is a great work station for a large table or floor area.

This game is called Roll A Pilgrim Boy and Girl.  I’ve posted a pumpkin and a scarecrow before.  The children roll a die and check the chart (I’ve posted that before as well) to see what shape corresponds with the number they have rolled.  They keep playing until one of the partners has filled up both shapes.

This is an addition box from Lakeshore.  The children spin the spinners and put that many ladybugs on each of the leaves.  They then add those numbers together and find the correct number answer.

I have now changed out all the MWS tubs once (from quarter 1 standards to quarter 2 standards).  It takes about two weeks to get everything changed out because I have 14 tubs.  Each day for 2 weeks or so, I introduce a new activity or game and then we all practice it large group before it goes into the tub.  It then stays there until the next quarters standards are ready to be taught.  It takes my students about three weeks to rotate all the way through the 14 tubs once, so they do each activity 2-3 times per quarter, but they are practicing the same skills in many different ways.

Kristen

You can click on the picture for a closer view.  This will also help solve the mystery of the green stoplight dot for some of you who asked.

Kristen