Ocean fun!

We have been learning about the ocean in a cross curricular unit that involves literacy, science, and math!!  Some of our learning:

Retelling "A House for Hermit Crab"

Using our five senses to study salt.

Recording our schema.

Skip counting by 10 game...the kiddos loved this one!!

Hungry Mr. Shark subtraction and a snack!!

Making 10 game with partners.

I love this book and learning about squids!!  We made a fun squid project too!

We had a great time learning about the ocean and are still doing ocean centers :). I am hoping to do at least one more post before the end of the year to wrap things up.  Enjoy the sun!

:) Mrs. Rogers

Plants and nonfiction books

We began our unit on plants last week.  We were learning about plant parts and a plant's life cycle.  One of our favorite activities was eating a whole plant, we all tried something new!!

Our menu:

Seeds = sunflower seeds

Roots = carrots

Stem = celery

Leaves = romaine lettuce

Flower = broccoli

I'm so sorry I didn't take any pictures because we were having too much fun.  We also read the book "Tops and Bottoms" and then created our own gardens on paper plates (also no pictures, where was my mind last week?!)

We labeled our class plant and our own plants:

And read a plant story "Nibbles: A Green Tale" and learned about asking questions before we read and cause and effect!!

We also wrapped up our nonfiction Reader's Workshop unit by looking for details, comparing two nonfiction texts on the same topic, and comparing the fiction and nonfiction genres.

We will be learning about pollination and photosynthesis this week!  We will also continue doing plant themed math projects, will incorporate plant stories into reading, and start a new unit in Reader's Workshop that will teach us how to use our reading "tools"/strategies to help us figure out unknown words.

Stay dry this week!

:) Mrs. Rogers

Writer's Workshop: Fiction

Hi parents and teachers!

We have spent our year working through Deanna Jump's Writer's Workshop a Units and have finally reached our fiction unit!  Tomorrow, we will start writing our fiction stories.  Here's a look at the process we went through to get ready to write :)

Each kiddo first created a character, it could be anything they wanted.  They also give their character a name. (Thumb)

Next, we spent a day creating settings (Pointer finger). Our third day we developed a problem our character could face in that setting (cloud).

Today, we chose three events that would happen in our stories and decided how the character would solve the problem.

The boys and girls have worked so hard to prepare to write and I'm excited to see the stories they create!!  I can't wait to share more soon.

We have begun our plant unit and I also am going to do a post about Reader's Workshop and fractions, all while preparing for the Mother's Day Tea on Friday, whew!  Looking forward to seeing all of you!

:) Mrs. Rogers

The sun and moon!

We started our unit on the solar system by learning all about the moon and sun, and incorporating some fun space stories :)

We read this awesome book, Armadillo Ray, about an armadillo trying to figure out what the moon was made of.  Then we wrote our own book and made fun art projects.

We compared the sun and moon:

We studied the phases of the moon and worked with groups to recreate them (and made them with Oreos...I forgot to snap a photo of that :( )

We read "The Three Little Aliens and the Big, Bad Robot" and compared it to The Three Little Pigs.

We did an experiment to learn how craters form.

We also learned about the Earth's rotation and revolution and the moon's revolution around the Earth.  We made two projects to display our learning (I only have a picture of one...sorry again!!)

I am hoping to do one more update this week about our fiction Writer's Workshop unit and our nonfiction Reader's Workshop unit!  We are also going to be taking on fractions soon so keep an eye out for that post as well.

:) Mrs. Rogers

Geology: Week 1

We had a "blast" (haha) learning about rocks, volcanos, and chemical reactions!

We learned what a geologist does and excavated and sorted rocks.  We also talked about properties of rocks.

We learned about the three different types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic and made them from crayon shavings.  We were also able to make a connection between metamorphic rock and a frog going through metamorphosis.

Our volcanos were a huge hit!  We followed the scientific method, learned about chemical reactions, did some how to writing, AND hade a good time!

We also read the Lorax last week, which tied in to our Geology theme, and worked on story mapping.  In math we played a fun game with partners to help us practice half hour time.

More geology to come this week!!

:) Mrs. Rogers

Geology part 2

Whew!  It's been awhile since I've posted (and I didn't realize the post before this one never uploaded!!) so buckle your seat belts :). We finished our geology unit and learned about taking care of our Earth.

We read the sad story of a river and learned what happens when people aren't careful with their choices.

We also had a blast working on geology themed centers :)

Finally, on a personal note, I finished my first half marathon, woohoo!

Look for a post on our solar system learning soon, :) Mrs. Proverbs