April 22, 2015

What story can you create with clay?

 

 

Ralina: The elephant is drinking water in the sun. He lives in the forest, then he takes a bath and they take a nap. When he wakes up he eats food. He likes to eat grass. My elephant likes to play in the water.

 

 Students M: The elephants are in the water. They are drinking water and they are waling to the

jungle. They are walking through the jungle. They are looking for food. They like to eat grass.

 

 

Shastelyne: It's a baby tiger and the Momma! They like to play with each other. They play wag the tail and who wags the tail first. They like to high five each other. After they play they get a drink and they play again. When they get tired they like to lie down and sleep. Then they play again when they get up. They like to eat fish and meat, like hot meat a red and white meat; what people, lion and tigers eat.

 

 

Thursday, April 2, 2015

All of these stories began with a note that said: Find the eggs in the room! When we take the time to listen to a child they will tell you everything. They are becoming some wonderful story tellers. The blocks supported the child's story and helped it come alive for them! Their expressive language is developing.

The Easter eggs are hiding!

Students X: The bunny is giving the other bunny some eggs because they have been good. They pop the eggs and take the candy out. They eat one and go back to getting the toys out of the eggs. The bunnies like the toys. Then the Easter eggs disappear because the bad bunny took their eggs. He was so rude he can't stop taking their eggs. The other bunnies started to give him a little kindness and have the bad bunny help them open some eggs. The bad bunny turns to good and all the bunnies go back to the house.

Student Y:The Easter bunny is getting kids candy and eggs to find. He is looking for another house to give the kids more candy and jelly beans. Then he goes to the next house and jumps in, then he went to a lot of houses.
Student R:Then bunny he give to children Easter eggs. He took them and picked them up and put them inside the house. He hid them in the house. He put a note on the table and then they look at the letters and read it. They know where to find the eggs. The note said : The Easter eggs are hiding. The kids need to find them.

Student J: The Easter bunny went into the house and give kids some eggs. He put the eggs in the sink where they wash their hands. Then the Easter bunny went out of the house to look for more Easter eggs. The kids ran down from upstairs to get a drink of some water. The kids found the Easter eggs. The bunny watched the kids find the eggs. They said, oh my gosh there is a hundred eggs in the sink! We need to put them away before Mommy gets home! Mommy said she saw the Easter bunny. Oh, children did the Easter bunny come and give you some eggs? Probably yes! They ran upstairs and go to sleep! Then end!

Student E: The bunny was in the house ad she was cooking pancakes. All the baby bunnies came to breakfast. They went to sleep after breakfast because it was so much food. They had full bellies!

Student A: Bunny lived in the tree being happy. He was having a party. He was having a sleepover party! He was super happy with his friends. His friends cheered him up, he was sad because he fell out of the tree on accident. His friends came over to make him feel better. He was sad he had no friends and then he made new friends!


Student B and M:The Easter bunny was in the factory making so much candy. So he had to eat some of the candy. He threw up the candy because he ate so much. After he felt better he went to the kid's house to give them candy. The kids were hiding but the Easter bunny found them and the kids went to sleep. The Easter bunny left them candy when they went to sleep. Then the Easter bunny started to give other people candy like parents. He went to the bad kid's house to give them no candy and he gave them rocks in their Easter baskets. Then in time the kids said uh man, the Easter bunny gave me rocks and the mom said, well you have to be good. So the bad kids went to their rooms and started to crying. The kids told their Mom if the Easter bunny gives me candy they would be good. The bad kid snuck out of the house and took candy from the Easter bunny's factory. He got caught and took him home. The Easter bunny told him to be good and he would give him candy. The End! You have to be good, no badness and listen to everybody!

What does your skeleton look like?

March 16, 2015

What does your skeleton look like?

 

 

Students discussed what was under their skin, after completing a wall mural about animals on the farm. Students were practicing measurement and identifying things that are small and tall. One of the students asked how big the horses bones were under their skin. Student M said: They are really big, they help him walk. Student B said: We have bones under our skin, they are strong. Student J said: They help us walk too!

                                     

The conversation and discovery of bones created a project. What does your skeleton look like to you? Students used noodles to create their own skeletons. They also wanted to create a skeleton that was life size. They asked to measure some of the students in the room. Students selected three students. They decides to pick them by height. Everyone lined up in the class and they determined who was the tallest, smallest and who was in between. They traced the outline of the three students.

 

They chose to look at a skeleton to help them identify and draw the bones in their own body.

We also had some 6th grade students help with the project. They used the arms of the older students to paint their leg bones and used their hands for feet. It was up to the students to determine how they created the skeleton and they chose paint. The 6th graders were there to learn about community service and helping others. 

 

 

Student M:We used the 6th grade students arm for our legs. Teacher: Why did you use their arms?

Student M: Their arms are longer than mine! 

 

 

 

Wednesday February 25, 2015

What story can you create with clay?

 

Students read about what we can find in the sky. Students created a story through clay and made connections from the informational text we read. They understood the story and was able to identify things we can see in the sky. The students used the clay to help them create their own story and understand the text that was read in class.

 

Students R: I see a shooting star and it shoots through outer space.

Student J: I see a shooting star. I made a happy face. The shooting star makes you happy! You are suppose to pop it when you see a shooting star. You can pop it with a pencil; it blows away into space.

Student M: I am looking for the stars and the moon. I am looking at a shooting star its moving.

Student J: I made stars and they are in the sky. We see them at night time.

 

Common Core Standards

ELA Literacy

Text types and purposes

3. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

Responding to literature

11. with prompting and support, make connections between self, text, and the world around them.

February 12, 2015
Our Winter Farm Trip

Students have been learning about Measuring and exploring different ways to measure. We went on our Winter farm trip in January and students wanted to measure the animals that they observed on the farm. The Farmer discussed with students how the hand was used to measure the height of a horse. Students became interested in creating a mural of life size animals they saw on the farm. The farmer helped the students by measuring the animals with their hands so we would have a baseline for each animals height. When using the hand as a unit students learned it is about 4 inches.
 Students came back to school and began working on observational drawings from the farm. They drew the animal they liked and then students selected a students drawing that would become part of our wall mural. They used their original drawing and traced it on acetate and used the projector to determine the live size of each animal. The students are finishing the mural and we have decided to add some of our own students to compare animal height to students. They really enjoyed the measurement project. Students are able to identify the difference between length and height.
They understand that there are many different units that can be used to measure.

Students B: We can use our hands, cubes, blocks, paper clips!

Student M: Big John is huge! He was taller than you!

Students B: The rooster is shorter than the baby goat. He needs feathers on is tail!

 

The projected has been incorporated into Math Module 4. Students used plastic animals with paper clips, cubes, tiles to practice measuring both length and height.

 

K.MD 1. Describe measurable attributes of objects such as length.

K.MD 2. Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, which object is more/ less and describe the difference,

More to come when the mural is complete!

What is this?

Thursday, January 22, 2015

What is this and what can we use it for?

Teacher: What do you think this is?
Student M: It's a measuring box!
Student J: It looks like a truck.
Student C: We could put quarters in it!
 Teacher: Why would we put quarters in it?
Student T: When you go to the store it tells you how much it is?

Teacher: What happens if I put the cubes on one side and the rooster on the other side?
Student M: It got heavier and it tilted. It can measure what it weighs.
Student MP: Yeah, its tells you how heavy or light it is.

Teacher: What can we do with the cubes?
Student B: Put them in and count them.
Teacher: When do I stop putting the cubes in?
Student B: When both sides are the same!

Students continued to count while we put the cubes in  and they counted 15 cubes were the same as the rooster.
Teacher: What can we say about the rooster and the cubes in a sentence.
Student M: The rooster weighs 15 cubes!
Teacher: Boys and girls lets repeat the sentence together!
Everyone: The rooster weighs 15 cubes.

Welcome to the snowman factory!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Students have been reading, discussing and learning about winter. We created a snowman factory with snow dough for students to explore and build their own snowman. The students have been discussing winter and the weather outside. We are discovering the seasons change and so does the weather. Students are identifying the changes in weather happen when the seasons change.
Teacher:What happens when it snows outside?
Student T said: It gets cold outside! BBBrrrr...
Student J said: You have to wear a hat, coat, gloves.
Student E said: You need the thing around your neck, a scarf!


Student A: I made a snowman! He is melting.
Teacher: Why did you make him melting?
Student A: He kept falling down, so I made my snowman in the shovel, now he won't fall down!