Time For Time

Telling time is so tricky!  Earlier in the year, students mastered the art of telling time on an analog clock to the nearest hour and half hour.  But, now that we've thrown telling time to the minute into the mix, you might have noticed that your child seems less sure about his/her time-telling abilities.  Though we continue to practice telling time here in the classroom with a variety of activities and games, I thought I would share this LINK with fun clock games your child can do at home to reinforce skills they are learning here in the classroom.  

Having fun exploring the site with your child!

Shapes, Storytellers, Snow, Silt, and Spring!

S was the letter of the week! 

Snow kept us out of the classroom on Tuesday, but we didn't miss a beat when we gathered again on Wednesday!

We continued to study shapes this week, and have started a 3D shape museum in our classroom!

Students learned about symmetry and even made their own creative and unique symmetrical shapes.

In science, we've left balance and motion behind and have returned to our study of pebbles, sand, and silt.  This week, students experimented with unwashed sand and water in their vials.  This experiment stretched over 3 days as students observed the changes in their vials each day.  On day 2, students noticed a new layer in their vials: SILT! 

Even with fresh snow on the ground, we ushered in spring by creating a mural.  Check it out in the hallway!

A big highlight of the week was getting to meet and talk with Matt Tavares, a great children's author and illustrator from Maine.  Students have been reading his books in library over the past month and were very excited to meet the man behind great stories like Becoming Babe Ruth and Helen's Big World.  Check out Matt's website HERE.

During his presentation, Matt shared his editing process with us.  When he asked the crowd "What is publishing?', the answer he got was: "Publishing is laminating your book cover and stapling it all together!" Perspective is everything!

He also showed us the process he goes through when creating an illustration.  He even did an impromptu sketch of one of the students!  We were all thoroughly impressed and inspired!

Back in the classroom there was a collective cheer during writers' workshop when it was announced that students could choose any genre to write in for the next couple of weeks!  Some went back to realistic fiction, how-to's, and persuasive writing, but most couldn't wait to get the paper of their choice and start writing fantastic fiction stories complete with super heroes, aliens, and talking animals!  These authors are overflowing with creative story ideas!

For a short week, it sure was jam-packed! Here are some highlights:

In math we've started learning about geometry. More specifically, POLYGONS. Students used straws and twist ties to create polygons, using this definition as a guide: A shape with all straight sides that only touch at their endpoints. Here are some of their creations:


Students have been studying and getting creative with some new glued sounds to help their reading and writing: ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, and unk. In teams, they came up with as many words as they could think of with their designated glued sound:

In science, students have been building marble runways. They started out with one 3 foot runway per team, and worked their way up to one LOOOOOOOOOOONG whole class runway. Students used slopes, loops, and curves in an effort to get the beloved marble from one end of the runway to the other. Check out their success in this video:

A Small Bump in the Road

I really enjoy taking the time to create videos and other media to show you all what we've been doing in the classroom.  Unfortunately, the platform I've been using to share our learning in action with you is closing down in April.  I've been experimenting with some other blogs over the past week, but until I work out all the kinks and find the right fit, we'll have to stick to photos to recap the happenings of each week.  With that said, here are some shots from our week!

Mrs. Gross (and Froggy) stopped by to talk with us some more about friendship problems and shared some great ways to solve those problems:

We've started writing our own small moments stories, using all we've learned from our mentor, Donald Crews!  Students have been so excited to share their work in Author's Chair each day:

You may see your child jotting down story ideas in his/her Story Seeds notebook.  This is a tool for students to write down topics and details that they do not want to forget.  It should travel back to school with them each day so that they can use those story seeds to create a complete small moment story during writers' workshop.

We are continuing to study balance and motion in science.  Students created wheel systems with cups, and experimented with weight to see how fast/far they could get their wheel systems to go!

...And We're Back!

Our classroom has been buzzing with excitement this week as we prepared to lead the whole school community meeting to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd is the real day)!

We made some festive hats:

We rehearsed our lines for the "Guess the Book" game: Look and listen HERE

We practiced reading The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, which we read to the kindergarteners during the community meeting:

But that's not all...

We also started a new writing unit!  We picked Donald Crews to be our mentor author, and are studying his books for crafts that we can try using in our own stories.

In math, we have incorporated quarters into our coin counting, and have started telling time to the nearest minute.

In science, we are building a variety of wheel and axle systems to see which designs will go the farthest.  Check out some video HERE!

Over February break, I had the opportunity to visit Opal, Rosie, and Dr. Laurita at Hope Elephants in Hope, ME.  I highly recommend a drive up the coast to visit this amazing organization (and maybe a hike up Bald Rock while you're at it!).  The work that is being done by Dr. Laurita and these retired circus animals is inspiring and heartwarming, not to mention extremely progressive.  The presentation is remarkably informative and child friendly, as a large number of schools field trip to this magical little spot.   Lessons on the importance of community, compassion, and determination will stay with you long after your visit with these brilliant elephants.  Check out the website http://hopeelephants.org/ and make sure to call to schedule your visit!