Thursday, February 26, 2015

President's Week Math

Last week for math, the kids did a couple stations that were president related and then a couple stations that were just for fun. They sorted Washington's coins (quarters) and Lincoln's coins (pennies) on hats like they wore, writing numbers by 5's, playing the one more or one less spinner game, missing teeth, doughnut addition, number bingo and shopping for items with coins.

Sorting pennies and quarters on Lincoln and Washington hats

Liberty bell writing by 5's





Somebody kept landing on less and was behind by 3 ...



Missing Teeth subtraction game







Number BINGO


Doughnut addition


Paying for items using coins

President's Week reading and writing

Last week we celebrated President's Day ... but for the whole week! :) In reading and writing, the kids did different stations that had to do with President's past and present. The wrote "Did you know ..."s about Barack Obama (our Black History Month person that week), made George Washington tricorn hats, made words using the letters in Washington and Lincoln, did timelines for Washington and Lincoln, made a Lincoln head and wrote about him, and sorted President's Day themed real and nonsense words. They also practiced their vocabulary by making sentences with different words, building words to match pictures on Legos, and made words by changing the beginning letters in words with spoons.


Writing about Barack Obama






Making words with the letters in Lincoln






















Putting Washington's timeline in the correct order






















Making spoon words!

Sorting the real and nonsense words












Spelling the words that match the picture on the legos

Using different words to make sentences and work on vocabulary and sentence structure



































Tracing Lincoln beards, faces and hats for their writing papers




Writing about Lincoln


Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentine Party Day!

Friday, we spent a lot of the morning finishing up whatever last minute Valentine things weren't finished from throughout the week. After the few who needed to finish up some things did that, we read a Valentine story called Valentine's Day by Anne Rockwell.


In the book, the kids in a Mrs. Madoff's class make a valentine for a friend named Michiko who is now living in Japan. After we read the book, we made our own valentine's to give to someone. The kids traced and cut out a large heart on their paper, then decorated it however they wanted.








After we got back from rotation, we did a science experiment like one we did back in October for Kidsville with vinegar and baking soda. This time, we used some Valentine bottles I made (gluing decorated paper around where the label goes on a water bottle) and heart balloons! We put vinegar in our bottle like the last time, but this time, instead of putting baking soda in to bottle with the vinegar it went into the balloon.






















I wrapped the balloon around the top of the bottle and then, when everyone was ready, I turned he balloon over and dumped the basking soda into the bottle. The reactions are always priceless! They predicted the balloon was going to explode.  I picked 5 other kids to dump the baking soda into the balloon after I showed them how to do it.



























After lunch, I passed out valentine bags and gave the kids the valentine's I got and made for them. One of the things I made them was a tan-gram puzzle they had to put together. We had a little race to see who could put their puzzle together the quickest.


























Then, it was party time! Thank you to all of the parents who brought food to our party and to those parents who helped get the kids their food so they could eat. I appreciate all of the help!