Puppets, Poetry, and Place Value

We have had a wonderful education major, Miss Lindley, helping us out in our room this semester.  As one of her projects, she worked with a group of students as they read fairy tale and folk tale stories.  The boys and girls picked their favorite story to perform and created a stick puppet show. After making the puppets, much practice went on for several days in order to get the voice and fluency just right.  This past week we had fun watching them "perform" their stories using a little puppet theater borrowed from another teacher in our building.

We also worked on using our voices to create different moods while reading the poem "The Storm."  Using an iPad to video record our practices, the kiddos were able to hear themselves and then discussed areas they needed to improve upon.  They really enjoy watching themselves on the Smartboard:

Here is the YouTube of our poem:

In math we have been practicing with base ten blocks, connecting cubes, and various math games to get a better understanding of place value.

Another activity that has become a favorite is "Roll and Write," a game to practice our spelling words.   

Also, after reading the story "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" by Trinka Hakes Noble, students discussed "cause and effect" and worked together to match a "cause" to an "effect" creating a complete sentence.

In writing we are practicing "persuasive" letter writing.  First, the boys and girls made a list of things they would like to have, places they would like to go, and things they would like to do.  After choosing an item from their lists, everyone completed an organizer containing the topic, a list of people to ask, and a list of things they would do if they were given their request.  The kiddos came up with some very interesting ideas!

We also began learning all about the weather with a thermometer activity, by making a little booklet on weather measuring instruments, and by learning about different types of clouds.  We will post pictures of some weather activities next time.

Thanks for taking time to read to the end of this long blog!  Until next time!

Oceans of Learning and Activities!

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break!  It always goes too fast!  The past two weeks just seemed to fly by, but we did pack quite a lot of learning into our schedule.

All of the girls and boys are working very hard on their ocean animal reports.  First, we spent some time just browsing through books before choosing a topic.

While doing research and collecting facts, we learned how to write acrostic poems.  Students wrote the name of their ocean animal down the side of the paper and created a phrase beginning with that particular letter sound.  Facts about their animal were included in the poem.  It took awhile for most  kiddos to catch on, but searching through the facts for those "just right" words really helped to enhance the learning.  Everyone really got to "know" their ocean animal by the time their poems were completed.  Here are some examples:

During our study of the ocean I always like to focus on the various habitats that make up this amazing environment.  We took a close look at tidal pools last week.  After watching a video, reading several books, and looking at images from the internet, students colored tidal pool creatures  and constructed a diagram.

We read books about fish and labeled a diagram.

We also learned about the ocean food chain by reading books, watching a Magic School Bus video, and constructing our very own food "chains."

     

Math games are a regular part of our week and we had fun playing a couple of 3 number addition games.  

And finally . . . our PBIS celebration for the month of March was a visit from Ronald McDonald. Needless to say, the students were very excited when he walked in the building!!  He spoke to the boys and girls about giving their time and talents to help others through a program called "Giving Back".  

Have a great week!