Perfect Square

Today my students took the reading OAA.  In the afternoon we read Perfect Square to have some fun. but still review some important concepts that they'd need later this week. We tied it into measuring because they needed to have perfect squares for the project and we take the math OAA in a few days.

This project was a little tougher than I thought it would be. Most of my students like to be very precise and draw pictures exactly as they are rather than chopping up paper and making something out of it.

Before reading the story, I had them select a piece of colored construction paper.  I wanted some variety and they had no idea what they'd be using the paper for, so variety is what we had.

 

After reading the story, they had to measure the paper and make a perfect square.  I gave them a little unintentionally twist. I told them that they'd be using 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  Oops! 

It turned out to be a great problem solving activity.  My higher students figured it out before I noticed the problem and they made their perfect 9x9 squares.

Everyone else had to decide how to make it a 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 perfect square which was a great review for some students. A few may have ended up with 7 x 7 squares. 

Here's one work in progress. 

As they were working, I stumped them with my blue torn pieces. Then I added some green coloring around them and one student slowly started to figure out my picture. It was fun to hear them guess.

Once she figured out that it was a field of flowers, I wanted to know what type of flowers. I tossed out a clue: I was born in the state.  They were convinced I was born in Colorado, which is funny because I always thought I'd move there and teach. 

One student guessed Texas and asked if it was the state flower. She was right, but she wasn't sure of the name. 

Everyone had to include:  On _________, the square was ________. So it made itself into _______.

Horses

Today we worked on my Horses Activity Packet for the Gail Gibbons' book Horses. My students really enjoyed it and they stayed engaged for 1 hour. I used this activity for the whole group. At times they worked with a partner and small group, too.

Students completed the KWL chart first. 

Then I introduced the words by having students volunteer to read them. If was exciting to see them recognize words they made have had already. We just finished reading a book about Harriet Tubman and the word steady was in there.  They loved the word awkward. It was a popular word this year.

After introducing the words, they predicted what the words might be related to in the story. (see photo #1, bottom picture) This really made them think. It was tough for some of the students. 

I paired students with a partner and gave them a card with either a True or False statement about horses. They had to read the card and decide whether it was true or false.  They placed the cards on the red chart.

While they listened to the story, I pulled the cards that were in the incorrect columns. Once they finished the story, I read the cards to them and they decided as a class which place it should go. 

Since I only had 3 books at school, I divided them into 3 groups and chose one person to be the helper and hold the book. They did a great job. If you have listened to a Gail Gibbons' book, they are rather long so that was a lot of holding!

Tomorrow we will finish our vocabulary chart and identify if they put the words into categories that made sense.  Does "majestic" describe a family or the body?

Testing Week Fun

It is what it is...  it's a long and exhausting week for everyone. 

Here's a little scavenger hunt for graphing review. 

 

A little telling time review with a game. 

Both items can be found in my store.

 

We will be digging through soil this week.  Check back for some  pictures! We have about 18 bags of soil and we are hoping to find some exciting things in it! It should be fun!

One of my students assured me that the stuff from the pigpen was not what I thought it might be! 

Volume

This week we worked on volume.  Partners made a display, the displays were numbered and students walked around with their partners to find the volume.  We need to work more on this!  I use the same activity every year, and I noticed it was difficult for more students this year to get the correct answer.

Five for Friday

I thought I'd give Five for Friday a try this week.  I actually took pictures throughout the week!

Nature's cruel joke after a high of 80 on the weekend. 

I'm ready for spring.  

We finished up our unit on Economics and designed our own menus.  They enjoyed working on this and were very creative with their titles. 

We also finished up with our community helper unit.  Students loved this Top Secret project from One Extra Degree.  We posted these around the room and the students walked around and guessed which occupation it was based on the drawings. 

Instead of having a 3 day weekend, we had to have school on Good Friday so we could make up a snow day.  With a 2 hour early release, it wasn't so bad.  I planned a lot of fun things for the students to help review for the OAA in a week. 

Students hunted for eggs with a partner or small group. They had to solve the math problems in each egg.  I really love this type of activity to get them working together.  I hope that next year's class can do this as well.  

In the afternoon, we worked on language cards around the room.  

We ended the day with a treat. 

Happy Easter!

Decimals

My students loved my Decimals math stations, however, I created it for them to use during February.  This is great for February, but not everyone does this near Valentine's Day. 

I changed the clip art so that it could be used throughout the year.  So don't be confused because it's the same product with a different look along with no black and white version.  Have you ever done this before?  I was hesitant, however, I didn't want to remove a wish listed item, so I decided to leave it. Click on the picture to take a look.

Economics and Community Jobs

This week we finished up our unit on Economics and began studying about Community Helpers. My students loved the Top Secret! project.  They were the quietest I've ever seen.  Amazing. 

On Friday we shared by displaying them as a "scavenger hunt" around the room. Students walked around with their partners and tried to guess the community helper by looking at the pictures.  We will be finishing up the scavenger hunt on Monday and then we'll discuss why these people are important in our communities.

We made posters with our economic flip books.  At the end of the unit, students took a little quiz using their flip books. 

Back to School and Test Prep

So much to do and so little time before testing!  Panic is starting to set in.  We need to finish up geometry, cover fractions, review measurement and work on my test prep packets.

This week we'll do a review on shapes and lines. Here's a little sneak peek! These are activities that I created for my classroom.

Here's a sneak peek at a product I'm still working on.  A few of my students need to work on this, so they get to give it a trial run.

Several of my students still need some extra practice with telling time and elapsed time.

 

Based on a few practice tests, I have some small groups that need a little extra practice with these types of problems.

It's going to be a busy week!