Bring Your Child to Work Day

I really can't believe this is an actual "day." I mean, I'm not complaining seeing as how I was down 9 kids all day.  What a difference 9 makes, it's a third of my class!  Needless to say we didn't get too much done because I'd just have to reteach it all again tomorrow. So you might be wondering what we did do?

Well, we spent the morning drafting and creating acrostic poems to add to our "Book of Poetry."  Each student used their first name to write an acrostic about themselves.  Then they did a watercolor self portrait.

To celebrate April is Poetry Month we are dedicating all of our writing lessons to poetry.  To celebrate our classrooms will be hosting, "An Afternoon of Poetry" next week. We are inviting the parents in to enjoy all of the hard work we've been doing.  We'll blog more about this later. ;)

Then we moved on to science, we decorated a face on a small cup and planted grass seed inside.  This way when it starts growing they can cut the "hair."  After they had them planted I found some of them holding their cup up to a lamp [because plants need (sun)light to grow] hoping to see a sprout. They are too cute!

  
During math we played Making Cents, a SmartBoard game, that I found at Lakeshore Learning.  It was a great review!  I love hearing the "Cha-Ching."

Speaking of money! We've been working hard to get a good handle on this skill.  I don't know about all of you but counting money is always a struggle!  We pulled out all the stops... worksheets, games, activities, journaling, practice, scavenger hunts.  I even established a classroom bank, they could earn money for various reasons.  They money they earn will be used at our classroom garage sale tomorrow. Check back for details on how I run that, this weekend. I think they are finally ready for the unit test tomorrow!  

Laughs and Scavenger Hunts

Tonight the sisters and I went to California Pizza Kitchen after school for a quick bite to eat.  I have to say I haven't laughed so hard in a while... or eaten so much.

mmmmmmm. 

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We finished our plant unit today.  Yesterday we did a scavenger hunt as a review for our test.  Our classes are all about the scavenger hunts.  It gets them up and moving and talking about science! (or math, or language arts, or social studies... whatever the topic may be.)

Tomorrow we start timelines... check back next week, we have some fun activities planned!  

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I'm in a food coma... I'm going to veg on the couch! Any good TV on tonight? 

Plant Parts

We are moving right along in our study of plants.  Scholastic has some great books that explain each plant part and why they are important.  They include great photographs and tons of information.

Once we read about each plant part we made a Plant Part's Flapbook.  This was a last minute idea so it's not included in our plant pack.  But no worries, it's super easy to whip up!  All we did was fold a piece of large construction paper to the middle of the page.  Then we cut the flaps into fourths.  Each flap is designated to a plant part, next year I think we'll add a flap for seeds.  Under the flap we wrote what the job of that part is.  Over on the blank side we used scrap construction paper to create a plant.  The turned out adorable!  

It's important for students to know that not only does each part play an important role in keeping the plant alive but that we also eat many plant parts.  At first they found that pretty gross and weird.  They never really realized that all fruits and vegetables are plant parts.  We read the book, Tops and Bottoms and to drive home this idea we did a sort! 

Tomorrow's supposed to be nice so hopefully we'll be able to get out and do some exploring in "nature."  

Seeds

One of my favorite science units is plants. We always save it for this time of the year... We have so many fun outside learning activities planned, if only the weather would cooperative that it!! It's been raining for over a week. But we didn't let that stop us.

We began by investigating the parts of a seed. I soaked the seeds over night to let them expand a little so it would be easier for littler hands to manage.  I passed out one seed to every two kids along with a magnifying glass.  We pulled back the seed coat and talked about why it's important. Then we broke the seed open to find the baby plant (embryo) and the stored food.

Next, we talked about the things seeds need in order to grow: sunlight, air, space, and water.  We wondered whether or not seeds would grow without soil.  So I pulled out the Ziplock baggies, paper towel, and seeds.  We got the paper towel damp, put it in the baggie, stapled a horizontal line around the middle of the bag, and plopped in some seeds.

Now we wait.

I thought it would be fun to incorporate some math.  I filled little cups with a variety of seeds.  Then I assigned partners to work on a seed sort.  They had some estimating to do before they could start sorting and counting.  On the back side of this page there is a graph.  They had to graph the amount of each seed they have and then analyze it to answer questions.

Stay tuned for some more plant fun! These activities and more can be found in our Plant Unit.