Whippin' Up The Desks!

One of our Countdown Balloons was to whip out the shaving cream and clean off our desks. The students LOVED this! They loved getting messy and writing/drawing on their desks with their fingers. It was a wonderful way to end our school day!

 

 

Area - Shoe Lesson

The Shoe Lesson

Here's another way to get some hands on area and perimeter experience! Each student brings in a shoe of their parent, or they use their own if they happen to forget their parent's shoe. First thing, students share whose shoe it is because they love to hear what their classmates brought!

The shoe is traced on 1-inch grid paper. The students find the perimeter using either string trailed along the outline or using their pinkie finger as a centimeter measure. To find the area of the shoe, students count all the whole squares. Then comes the tricky part, students need to find part-squares to "put together" to make up a whole square.

Insect Field Trip

Last Thursday, we headed out to F.L. Schlagle Library in Kansas City, KS. In the fall, we had an expensive insect unit in science. As Spring comes back to Kansas, the insects are coming back as well! At the library, students were given nets and insect boxes to check out their catches. We looked up the insects that were caught and then let them go.

 

 

We reviewed what makes an insect an insect (six legs, three body parts, etc.). Then, the students got to look at some insects under glass and microscopes.

 

After we spent the morning focusing on science, we had a picnic lunch at a park shelter. The students did a quick measurement activity and then it was PLAYTIME!! That was the highlight of the day for the students, of course.

 

 

 

 

New Room in the Fall!

Our school district built a new elementary school to help relieve the size of the school I teach in. Currently, we have two extra buildings for the third and fourth grades. Next year, I will be back in the normal building and have a regular-sized classroom! I have been on Pinterest finding some great ideas for organization and ideas to go along with my fish/ocean theme.
     

     

       

Last Days of School Countdown

We have balloons to celebrate the last 15 days of school. Each day we pop a balloon and get to do whatever activity is on the balloon.

Here are some of the activities in our balloons:
-choose your own seat for the day
-whip out the shaving cream and write on your desks
-extra recess today
-movie & ice cream party
-bubble blowing day
-get your EXPO marker and write a nice note on at least four other desks
-multiplication ice cream party
-relay race: boys v. girls

Area - Island Conquer

For students to practice their area skills, my students played Island Conquer (created by Laura Candler). Students work in partners, chose colors, and draw cards with coordinates. The students take turns creating rectangles from the coordinates and figure the area. After all the coordinates cards have been drawn, students find out which partner conquered more of the island.