Sundial Time!!!

   While researching how the earth revolves around the sun and how the sun "rises" in the east and "sets" in the west we came across a picture of a sundial. We knew we just had to make our own! We learned about the different parts of the sundial and found things in our room that were similar. We used a piece of paper as the face and a pointer as the gnomon. We then made a mark around the time we placed it outside (based on a sundial face diagram we found on NASA's websited) and came back an hour later only to find that it really had moved to keep time! The kids were fascinated! =)

 Here is the sundial; the two little marks are the frame for where the gnomon case it's shadow at the beginning of the exploration and you can see where the shadow was an hour later!!!

What I Love This Wednesday

What I love this Wednesday:
-My class asks to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and to get their snacks ALL in sign language without having to be reminded! They fluently know about 35 signs at this point. It is so awesome to be able to answer their questions about water and the bathroom without having to stop reading groups!
-The kids made a cross-curricular reference today by saying, "the semi-circle looks like the first quarter moon phase"... seriously?! I am so pleased they are noticing ties between lessons that I accidentally purposefully made! :)
-We were able to use the "Rule of Five" to encourage self-monitoring while selecting a book from the school library. Ask your child about this today!

Happy Wednesday!

Symmetry

  For a little bit of symmetry exploration we drew shapes on wax paper with permanent markers and folded them to see if there were lines of symmetry that could be made. The beauty of the wax paper is that it is strong enough to withstand the trial and error of folding done by 6-8 year hands and yet is still see through to make sure the halves of the symmetrical shape line up or the halves of the asymmetrical shape do not. We had a blast! We then used stencils (yes the still make those!) and traced shapes of everyday objects that most likely are not symmetrical. The kids had so much fun that we continued the project a little bit after lunch!

I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me!

    It could be said that our class loves science, and it could be argued that that is an understatement. The kids are so engrossed in any type of scientific investigation or exploration, so it is great to do cross-curricular units! Most times they don't realize they are writing more complex paragraphs and doing more complicated mathematics; it is just all fun to them. We started our day and night sky unit today and the kids were so excited they actually jumped up and down! We watched the Brainpop Jr. vid on the moon. Brainpop Jr. is one of the neatest resources; the videos are short which is appropriate for their attention span. They are easy to pause for teachable moments or whole class talks. The videos also have this little notepad on the right side of the screen with key vocabulary and main points which is great for learning the spelling of new vocabulary and being able to follow the pertinent points. There are differentiated quizzes for each video and this is great for informally assessing their progress and it allows me to address any misconceptions. Needless to say, I love Brainpop Jr. For any of my teacher friends- you can even use the activities in computer center for an extension of your formal lesson in addition to the vid!  
   While we replayed the five minute clip to review the main points we created moon phase spinners. This was a huge hit! We then used them to "research" the phases of the moon and how they gradually wane and wax.

Little Worker Bees

   We had an impromptu lesson on pollination recently; an observant little student found some pollen that happened to drop from the pretty flowers (from my coworkers and students- lucky me) and instantly brought all of our attention to it! We all walked over to see the sticky yellow powder on the corner of my desk:

and here is the pollen still on the plant:

   So, seeing as this was a teachable moment I talked through the process of how bees carry pollen from flower to flower and... we acted as BEES! We collected the pollen and delivered it to the other unsuspecting beautiful flowers! I made sure to note that the flowers were cut flowers and this was merely a demonstration of how the pollination process occurs. We also learned from Mr. Mecoli that the cross pollination was not possible between these two types of flowers even if they were alive.

  I may be partial, but I think they are just about the cutest little bees I have ever seen! =)

What I Love This Wednesday

What I love this Wednesday:

• The kids remembered all thirteen blends IN ORDER that we have placed on the blender over the last thirteen weeks!? Wow! I was so impressed.
• One of the kids then said, "Kids are great because kids remember, adults...well... they forget things!" 
• The kids are so engaged in our shapes unit that they found shapes in their snacks! See the pics below:

                                                    and this picture is just too cute not to post!

Spring Has Sprung

  Happy first day of Spring everyone! We brought in the new season with a spring math page, mystery word, and writing prompt* to boot! We also made geometry flowers by cutting shapes from tissue paper and layering them to make the petals; it was very fun artsy strictly educational! ;-)
  Here are our responses to what spring is:
 "Spring is like swimming in my pool. I say this becaus, I like to have friends over."
"Spring is like riding my gorgeous staleain through the meadow and playing with Paulie. I say this because I have a bird and a staleain." (stallion)
"Spring is like baseball season. I say this because, I think they choose in spring."
"Spring is like a warm day. I say this because spring is alot warmer than winter."
"Spring is like swimming out in the cool warm beach. I say this because it feels nice."
"Spring is like playing outside. I say this because I can fly my kite."
"Spring is like shots at the doctor's office. I say this because bees sting me."

Here are some pictures of creating the spring pieces:

Here is the process of making the geometry flowers:

Here is our celebration of spring display:

Happy Spring!

*courtesy of Amber Polk TPT

3D Shape Construction

We made our own 3D shapes with Model Magic and thick straws; it was so much fun! The project was a hands on way to explore the way the faces connect at the sides and corners to make each shape. We also found it interesting that a square based and triangular based pyramid were both possible!