Goldfish Cracker Graphing/Math Freebie

Monday, April 30, 2012 2 comments
Here is a graphing freebie I will be doing with my class when we start our ocean animal study.  It also includes:
       1.  comparing number practice with >, <, and = 
       2.  addition practice

First, you need to get some of these:
Divide them into snack baggies for each child in your classroom.  Do not put more than 6 of any particular color because the graph only goes to 6.

Then snag yourself a copy of this recording sheet by clicking on the picture below.




  I made this Sea Animal Fun Pack with 5 math and 5 literacy centers to go along with our ocean animal study.  It will be available in my TpT store and TN store.






I tried to get all my ocean animal science stuff together to go in this packet as well but can't seem to find the time to get it done.  I will add that as a separate pack you can purchase later, but it may even be summer before it gets done. 





Little Botanists

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 4 comments
We have been busy this week learning all about the parts of a plant, the functions of each part of the plant, and what plants need in order to survive.  We've also had some fun along the way.

We disected a seed and labeled its parts.

We disected plants too.  I had the kids fold a manilla piece of paper into fourths and label each square with:  petal, stem, leaf, roots.  They then found an example of each part and we taped it in each box.


We labeled the parts of a plant.



After learning the parts of the plant,
we then had to eat all the parts of the plant.
These were the parts we ate:

seed- sunflower seeds
root- carrot
stem- celery
leaf- spinach leaves
flower- broccoli  (the tips of broccoli are actually flower buds)
(FYI:  I let them eat the sunflower seeds as they were labeling the parts of their plant,
so they aren't included on their plates)

We also made this flip book where students wrote the funcion of eact part of the plant.

We also started this little experiment today to actually see what a stem does but we won't be able to see the results until tomorrow.
(And, no we didn't actually do this experiment by this electrical outlet because I am a safety girl, I just sat it up on this shelf out of the way so it wouldn't get knocked over from curious onlookers.)

BrainPop Jr. has a few good videos about plants.

We also planted bean and grass seeds. 

Hopefully when we start writing about plants tomorrow, my little firsties will have a wealth of knowledge to draw upon.

Happy Hump Day Friends!

 

Idioms

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2 comments
Let's not beat around the bush.  My kids have spring fever.  Big time.  Teaching in my classroom is like pulling teeth.  But I refuse to throw in the towel.  I will bend over backwards to squeeze a few more drops of learning out of their little brains.


We are reading this story in our reading series:




It is a good story to use to teach idioms: 

We went over one of my old anchor charts. (not one of the best charts I ever made but you get the drift)


I was on cloud 9 after my students did this little writing activity. 
I wrote a list of idioms on the promethean board, we talked about their meanings and then the students chose one, used it in a sentence and then added their illustration.

This student wrote:  That ipad cost an arm and a leg. I wish I had $600 dollars.


This student wrote:  I took a cat nap on my bed.

This student wrote:  Man, that boy lost his head! 


You can grab yourself a copy by clicking HERE. 



Well friends, I'm calling it a day and hitting the road.  
I'm all idiomed out.





Plant Stuff

Saturday, April 21, 2012 5 comments
This week we are learning about plants.  Here is an anchor chart I made to help us kick off our study.

Here are a few of the books we are reading.


The students will be doing this flower garden part, part, whole and fact family activity.  The flowers were made with Do a Dot markers.  The kids will choose two colors of flowers to put in their garden, then fill out their recording sheet.  The butterfly is made out of pretzels. 

A closer view of the pretzel butterfly:




We will be doing even more fact family practice.  Students will choose a card with two numbers on it and either add or subtract to get their third number and then write its fact families on the petals of a flower.



In this little activity, students will pick the correct flower out of a set by reading attribute clues : 


We will also be doing some writing this week and I made a few writing plan sheets for my students to use.  If you are new to my blog and want to see how I use these plan sheets you can click HERE.



You can grab a copy of all these activities by clicking on any of the pictures above.

We, of course, will be planting some beans and grass.  We will also be labeling the parts of a plant.  I will post more pictures of the stuff we do later this week. 

And now for my happy news.  I won the Learning Resource Lunar Interactive Projection Camera from Swamp Frog First Graders  give away.  Thank you Heidi and Learning Resource!  I am doing the happy dance!  I know I will be posting pictures of that little jewel in my classroom.  I can not wait to use it.










A Buggy Week

We have been learning about insects this week.  Students have been bringing in jars with live samples.  They get so excited about bugs.  We did the "Bug's Eye View" activity from Deanna Jump's Insect Unit.  Check it out by clicking on the link.
I found these bug glasses at Michael's two summers ago (on their Dollar Spot aisle) and these are perfect for this activity.


We made an insect fact book focusing on one particular bug a day.  I tried to read a fact and fiction book about each insect.
We started with ladybugs on Monday. One of my sweeties just happened to bring in some ladybugs and he had had both the adults and the larvae. I was so excited!  I just love it when things come together without even planning for it!



On Tuesday, we studied bees.


On Wednesday, we learned about fireflies.


On Thursday, we learned about the praying mantis.  I couldn't find a fiction book about the praying mantis so we read  "The Very Ugly Bug."  An appropriate book for this insect, don't you think? 
 


On Friday we learned about grasshoppers.


If your wondering why I did not cover butterflies here, it's because we just spent one full week  learning about butterflies and moths and you can check that out by clicking HERE.

Bugs on a Log

Friday, April 13, 2012 4 comments
We finished up our butterfly/moth study this week with a little butterfly sipping experiment.  The students used their butterfly proboscis (straw) to sip nectar (apple juice) from a flower.



After we did this little experiment, the students had to come back and write what they learned about how butterflies eat:


Here were some of our centers this week:
Matching time to the hour and half hour.

 Unscramble the butterfly sentences:

Sort butterfly nouns and verbs: 

Next week, we are learning about insects so I will be carrying over some of the activities that are in my Butterfly Bonanza unit.  All the above activities are included in this unit and you can check them out by clicking on the picture.


For our writing center next week, the kids will be making "Bugs on a Log" and writing a "how to" telling how they did it.
These are my old posters that I used for this little activity (back when I literally cut and pasted everything!)


These are the ingredients you need to make "Bugs on a Log":


Now that I am becoming adept at using the handy dandy laptop, I have updated the old posters into these:


After they make their "Bugs on a Log", they will write how to do it on this sequencing/writing form:
Grab yourself a copy by clicking on one of the pictures above.
To make these posters, I used:  Graphics From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com

Happy Weekend Friends!