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Friday, October 28, 2011

Bat and Pumpkin Nonfiction Unit


We began our nonfiction unit by learning about bats. After reviewing nonfiction text, the students completed a bubble map to recall all the things they knew about bats. Then as a class we listed all the things we knew about bats and all the things we wanted to learn. We read many bat books and recorded what we learned.




After reading Scholastic News-In the Dark of the Night, the students drew a diagram of a bat.



During our bat unit, we also read some fiction books. We read Stellaluna and compared fiction and nonfiction. We studied the structure of fiction books and identified characters, setting, problem and solution.



Ready Freddy is always a favorite!
                                                   PUMPKIN UNIT
Our next nonfiction story was The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin from our reading series. After reading the story, we completed a sequencing activity and discussed  fact and opinion. Our next activity was to use adjectives to describe the outside of a real pumpkin. We then cut open the pumpkin and listed adjectives to describe the inside of the pumpkin. 



Gross was a popular adjective! We scooped out the inside of our pumpkin and carved him a happy face. We washed the seeds and the students all took home a little bag of seeds.  




                  The next day, we had pumpkin dip. The students loved it! 







As a writing activity, we wrote a friendly letter to our Jack-O-Lantern. The letters were adorable! The best part-- Jack-O-Lantern wrote them back! What a fun day! 


Jack-O-Lantern got to stay for our Halloween party. It has been a busy and  fun couple of  weeks! Happy Halloween!

Emma and her mom,  Mrs. Wallace, at our party.
What a great class!

















Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fall Book Reports

 The fall book reports were adorable.  I am always amazed how creative the students are! Thank you parents for helping your child with this project. The reports were great and the students were well prepared for their presentations.
Emma and her Junie B. Jones from Captain Field Day



 Emily made a true look-a-like book character!





Darius and the Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl


Clint made the Cat in the Hat-love the gloves!







The Fat Cat lost an ear coming to school! Andrew did a good job-a little shy for the camera!

Book characters just hanging out at the reading table!
 Macy made the cutest stuffed horse to go with her book.



Scotlyn- the main character of a Goose Bumps book 
Mariah- Junie B. Jones-Jingle Bells- Batman Smells

Tarin with a very cute character from a scary book! 


Hailey made the bird from Are you My Mother?

Dymire with his Fly Guy character


Johnny and his wonderful monster!


Dylan and a Dr. Seuss character

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Math Stations

Math Stations are the student's favorite time of the day. They love practicing important math skills with hands-on activities. The stations are planned around the math unit we are currently studying and they also practice previously learned math concepts.
Line-Up
using ones and tens models to order numbers


 The students are great at working together. We rotate through the groups with a math partner.



 We use Education City to practice math skills.



           We love the computer     time!


The students get to use the classroom computer about three times per week. Besides Education City, we have Math Facts in a Flash to practice math facts.

Frog Games
This week we are practicing number order, greater than and less than, and counting by twos past 100.


iPods- another class favorite
 There are so many wonderful math apps!


 Race to 100- trading ones and tens- a wonderful math game to help us learn about place value




They are getting very good at this game!

Math is Wonderful!

Math is fun!