It's all about the numbers!

This week in math we did a lot of adding/counting on, writing and building numbers and paying for items using nickels.

 At this station, the kids used linking cubes to help them count on and solve the problems on their paper.

Using linking cubes to help count on

They have their own thinking processes :)

At this station, the kids used nickels to pay for different items on cards. Their items we worth anywhere from 5 cents to $1.50!

Buying food with nickels

They were bartering :)

At this station, the kids used dry erase markers to fill in the correct amount of five frames depending on the number they were working on. After they filled in their five frames, they had to practice writing the number and writing the number word.

At my station this week, the kids practiced more with counting on using cookies and dry erase markers on the laminated paper on the back of our big shelf. After they used the cookies to figure out how many they needed, they wrote the number underneath it and read the problem to me.

Solving problems with cookies

 

What's the Weather?

Last week and this week in science we have been talking about the different types of weather we have. Thankfully, living in Texas we can see as least 3 different types of weather in one day! After we talk about each type of weather and look it up in our Weather Encyclopedia, we read a book that has to do with that type of weather and the kids draw a picture of it in their science journals.

I think their favorite type of weather so far has been cloudy. They can't stop talking about it! We talked about the different kinds of clouds there are and what we can see in the sky. Last Wednesday when we went outside we saw three different kinds of clouds!

This was a cloudy day

Cloudy and stormy days

The Solar System!

After we looked at day and night, the moon and constellations, we looked at each of the planets! We spent one day a week on each planet in the solar system. Each of the kids got a book with each planet in it that had fill-in-the-blank sentences. We looked at a PowerPoint with four facts on it, then read the sentences on the page and figured out what word went in each blank. After filling in the blanks, we listened to that planet's song from Gustav Holst while drawing the planet. 

After we were finished talking about each of the planets, the kids got in groups and colored planets. They raced to put them in order and see which group could order them the quickest.

After arranging their planets, we took them outside and made a scale model of what the solar system would look like if it were on our playground.

Our sun started down here and our planets went aaaaaaall the way down to the other end of the school!

Our inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Our outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

After running past the dirt spot "Watch out for the black hole!" We didn't want to get sucked in!

We almost got pelted with asteroids in the asteroid belt too! You have to be careful out there in space!

President's Day ... Week

This week in Social Studies we are talking all about Presidents!

Monday we talked about Abraham Lincoln and the kids did different Lincoln activities in their stations. In the morning we watched the brainpop on Lincoln and the kids wrote about him in reading and writing stations that afternoon.
 

Oops! Got caught taking a picture!

Tracing and cutting out different parts to make Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln's timeline!

Abraham Lincoln: he was assassinated. He was the 16th president. John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. He was born February 12. He was born in a log cabin. His parents were farmers. He did not go to school.

Abraham Lincoln was in the United States. He was assassinated. He lived in a log house. He was born February fourteenth. 

All our cute little Lincoln's in their stove pipe hats!

Tuesday, we talked about Barack Obama. The kids wrote what they learned about him on a "Did you know ..." paper and made their own portraits of him.

Portrait of President Obama

Wednesday, we reviewed Lincoln and Obama and the kids wrote what they would do if they were president.

If I were President, I would ...

Sorting real words and non-sense words

Making words

The new favorite game ... Balloon Pop!

Thursday, when we had early release, a group of us played Balloon Pop ... I worked so hard to read my sneaky "e" words then got a bang card!

Friday was all about Washington! We talked about some of the things we knew about him from when we learned about him back in January. They kids made Washington monuments and wrote what they knew about Washington, then we folded them up and glued them together.

Washington Monument writings about President Washington

The remembered SO much about these 3 Presidents! They could tell me around 10 facts for each President!

At the end of the week, they had three different activities for each of the Presidents.

Math stations were patriotic themed, too. The kids put numbers in order counting by 5's to 100, sorted quarters and pennies onto tri hats and stove pipe hats, graphed Washington symbols (cherry trees, tri hats and quarters) and matched nickels with their amounts.