Basketball in P.E.

The students have been practicing their basketball skills in P.E. Today, I went in and videoed them shooting baskets. The whole class made 14 baskets in all (15 if you count mine)! We also got our painted lady caterpillars today. We are very excited to watch them turn into butterflies. In fact, we peeked at them several times throughout the day. We also read a book about the butterfly's life cycle today. We'll do many more activities in the next couple weeks to help us learn more about this cycle.
Lastly, we did another lesson on the differences between wants and needs in Social Studies. We talked about how we "need" certain things to live: food, drinks, clothes, toothpaste, medicine, etc. Then, we discussed how we might "want" other things: toys, candy, pets, etc. However, I explained that we don't "need" these things to live. They're just nice to have. Next, we divided a paper in half and wrote "wants" on one side and "needs" on the other side. Then, we looked through magazines and glued the different pictures on the appropriate side. Our finished papers are now proudly displayed in the hallway.

Here's 2 video clips of them playing basketball in P.E.: (A few of Mrs. Larson's friends join us for P.E. so those are the extra kids you see)


A few pictures of the basketball fun



Our caterpillars: Fizzy is on the left and Sparkle is on the right

Some of their wants and needs papers

Telling Time to the Hour

We are working on telling time to the hour in math. We read a special story about a student's day from morning until night. We made the different times from the story on our small clocks. It was a lot of fun, and the students are doing great with telling time.

Practicing making the different times from their clock worksheet

Pajama Party!

Yesterday, we filled our lasso stick. Our behavior has been wonderful the last couple of weeks. Today, we had a pajama party to celebrate. We wore our pajamas to school, ate ice cream, and enjoyed watching an Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD. It was about a Leprechaun, and they loved it!
We also did a fun scavenger hunt project using magazines. Each student was given a paper that had 8 items they had to search for in a magazine. These items were: the number 9, a ball, a car, a sight word, a picture of weather, a child, a shape, and an animal. When they found the items, they cut and glued them to their paper. They did great job, and they even helped friends who couldn't find certain items. I was very proud. It was a great challenge!

Some of our friends wearing their pajamas (a few friends were busy at the time this picture was taken)

All of the kids posing with their ice cream before the movie

Searching through the magazines




Here's what their papers looked like when they were finished:

Sink or Float?

Today, we did a fun experiment on whether certain objects would sink or float. Earlier in the week, we played a sink or float game on the Sesame Street website to get us prepared for this lesson. I gave each student a piece of paper with pictures of the items we were going to use in the experiment. Their job was to record whether the items sank or floated. We always guessed or hypothesized before we dropped the item in the water. After we were finished, we also experimented with some other objects around the room. It was a lot of fun!
Of course, today was St. Patrick's Day so we were all decked out in green. We played a fun St. Patrick's Day themed game in math called Roll-a-Leprechaun. We played this game with partners. Each student was given an instruction sheet and a outline of a Leprechaun. The number they rolled on the dice determined what they drew on their Leprechaun. The first partner to complete their Leprechaun was the winner. Of course, everyone got to finish their Leprechaun at the end of the game.

Dropping items into the water to see whether they would sink or float


Here's the results from our experiment:

Playing the Roll-a-Leprechaun game



A finished Leprechaun

The class wearing their green for St. Patrick's Day (Two friends were absent)

Matching Missing Mitten Game

Our librarian, Mrs. Baker has been teaching the students where their books "live" in the library. Their books live in the Everyone section marked E. They have practiced finding books using the 3 letters on the spine of their book (the first 3 letters of the author's name.) The Everyone section is clearly labeled with each letter of the alphabet for every author. Today, the students worked with partners. Each set of partners was given a mitten with the 3 letters on it and the title of the book. The students had to take the mitten and find the book. When they found the right book, there was the matching mitten inside the book! They did a wonderful job and loved every minute of it! :-)

Animal Shape Glyph and a Birthday

Today, we did an animal glyph in math. It was a really neat glyph because it helped the students with their shape recognition. First, they decided if they wanted to make a cat or a dog, depending on which animal they liked best. Here were the other questions that helped us make our dog/cat:
How Many animals do you have?
0-1 - Circle body 2-3 - Ellipse body 4 or more - rectangle body
What is your favorite food that you can eat with your hands?
Hamburger - yellow head Hot dog - Orange head Burrito - Brown head
What is your favorite food that you can not eat with your hands?
Spaghetti - Triangle Ears Macaroni and cheese - square ears Frito chili pie - circle ears

After we finished answering the questions, we put our animals together and added details to our pictures. It was a lot of fun! Then, we compared our animals to see how they were alike and different. We also read a shape book in math and played the I spy game looking for shapes in our classroom. They loved that! :-)
We also celebrated H's 6th birthday today. She brought in pink and blue cupcakes. We loved them!

Adding details to their glyph



Three different groups of students holding up their glyphs:



Happy 6th Birthday H!

Our Decorated Door

Our school's theme for Read Across America this year is: "Feed your mind." Obviously, we want the students to feed their minds with books. Our librarian photographed each teacher with their favorite book and made it into a cool poster. I have too many favorite books, so I picked my current favorite: "The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark." We used these posters to help decorate our doors for our annual door decorating contest. I had each student pose in the reading center with their favorite books too. I put these photos along with the student's illustrations about their favorite book on the door. I even made an illustration to go with my book too! In case you want to check them out, here were the student's favorite books:
1. Pinkalicious
2. Purplicious
3. Goldilicious (2)
4. The Cat in the Hat
5. The Gingerbread Girl
6. The Gingerbread Cowboy
7. The Very Ugly Bug
8. David Goes to School
9. Bad Kitty
10. Poor Puppy
11. Skeleton Meets the Mummy (2)
12. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
There were 3 students who were absent, and they will get their pictures on the door as soon as they get back.
Here's the door:

Here are some close-ups:

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

We have done lots of Dr. Seuss activities in the last 2 days. Yesterday, we made hats with -at words written on them. Today, we made special Cat in the Hat masks. Also, we did a Cat in the Hat glyph. Here are the questions to this glyph:
1. Are you a boy or a girl?
Girl- Color the bow pink
Boy - Color the bow red
2. Do you like Dr Seuss books?
Yes- Red and White hat
No- Black and Blue hat
3. Do you think cat and hat rhyme?
Yes- Color the nose black
No- Color the nose orange
4. Do you like Thing One and Thing Two?
Yes- Color the cat's face brown
No- Leave the face white
5. Do you want the Cat in the Hat to visit your house?
Yes- Color the cat brown
No- Color the cat black

We even created our own unusual character just like Dr. Seuss did in his books. (ie. The Gox or the Yink). We called our character a Dizzledoop. They were very creative! Lastly, I have read many Dr. Seuss books over the past 3 days. We made a graph today choosing our favorite Dr. Seuss book. Our 3 choices were:
1. The Cat in the Hat
2. Green Eggs and Ham
3. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Two Friends "wearing" their -at hats:


The whole class with our Cat in the Hat masks (2 friends were in ESL and 3 students were absent):

Here are a few friends holding up the Dizzledoops that they created:



Here are a few of our Cat in the Hat glyphs:


Here is Dr. Seuss graph - Green Eggs and Ham was our favorite book!