Sensory Overload

Well this was a whirlwind of a week.  More MAP testing, shopping at Santa's Workshop, PM class cancellation, fire drill, and, oh yea, it was too cold to go out for recess and the gym wasn't available for PE classes.  To say that we were all going a little nuts would be the understatement of the year. But we rolled with the punches and had some great learning experiences anyway.  We explored our 5 senses this week with a different 'experiment' everyday. We started with our sense of sight.  The students had to call out a sight word on the screen.  As I erased each sight word, a little bit more of the Christmas picture behind them was revealed. It was a picture of Santa! 

On Tuesday, we explored our sense of hearing.  Each student was given a (very old) metal film canister with unknown objects inside. They had to shake them and find their sound match.  Some students had jingle bells inside, some had ornament hooks, candies, beads, etc.  They sat down with the partner they thought matched their sound and then I revealed what was inside of each one.  It was pretty tricky! (Unfortunately, the PM class didn't get to do this activity, since their class was cancelled due to the snow. But I hope to have time to do it with them next week).

The next day was about our sense of smell. We went on a "Smell Hunt." First, I let each child smell a jar of cinnamon.  Then I told them there were hidden objects in the room with the same smell and to use their sniffers to find them. 

It wasn't the crayons......

It was cinnamon-scented pinecones!

   By the way, as we discussed each new sense, we also learned the stanza about that sense in our Christmas poem.  Your child has a copy of it attached to their newsletter. If they can read it or recite it by themselves by Wednesday, they will get a Christmas-y prize! (They do not need to collect signatures this time).

 On Thursday, the students' taste buds really confused them.  I wrote the different tastes that our tongues recognize on the board and showed them a red hot candy (not in its box) and asked each child to guess what they thought it would taste like. (I also didn't tell them what it was called). Of course, they all assumed it would be sweet like a strawberry.  But they were in for a surprise! The looks on their faces when the heat set in was priceless!  I followed up by showing them a dark chocolate mint M&M.  It was a very unassuming shade of green. This time, most of them guessed it would be sweet like chocolate.  Once again, they were surprised by a minty, bitter taste.  Here's a video of the PM class tasting the Red Hots.

  And finally, our Fun Friday senses activity was about touch. I placed a cookie cutter in a "Touchy-Feely Box" for the students to reach in and feel, but they couldn't see what was inside. (The morning class also had a small pair of mittens in their box).  The students had to describe what the object felt like and then they made their guess. 

We followed this up with an activity that used almost all of our senses - using cookie cutters to make delicious-smelling cinnamon dough ornaments. Mrs. Taylor has a perfect recipe for it and the ornaments were looking super cute when I left them to dry this afternoon. 

 

We wrapped up our fun Friday with the art activity we were supposed to do last Friday (the snow day). We are learning about measuring and comparing measurements in math. To tie into this objective, the students made a Christmas tree by ordering green paper strips from longest to shortest.

As for centers, the favorite of the week was the present wrapping center (what better way to learn about rectangular prisms?

The Number Work center involved measuring and recording the measurements of various Christmas items using pop cubes.

 

 

 

In Math Games, the students played Race to Santa's Sleigh.

The Word Work center was "Roll and Color the Sight Words." The students worked in pairs, taking turns rolling the word dice. They would then choose a piece on the page with the same word and color it together (according to the color key).

And in the Writing center, the students wrote the Christmas words neatly in the letter boxes.

 Instead of our normal reading groups, I gave the students a tutorial on how to use the Raz-kids reading website. The instructions on how to log them in at home are attached to your child's newsletter.  Please check it out and let your child use it during the Christmas break.  Students will regress in reading if they don't read for two weeks.

And while we may not have been able to get outside for recess this week, the students did have a pretty good time dancing in the classroom.  I leave you with the PM class dancing to Who Let the Dogs Out and the AM class doing Santa Clones.  Your child will probably want to dance to the Santa Clones again. Here's the link to the entire Just Dance video that they dance along to.  Its awesome. 

Have a Merry Christmas! I'll post again in the NEW YEAR!

Christmas Time is Here!

First, you should know that Christmas is my absolute FAVORITE time of year. So the fact that we are losing a day that would have been spent making cute little Christmas crafts because of inclement weather has me a little bummed.  But at least we got off to a festive start! Nearly every center had a Christmas theme.  In the Word Work center, the students pulled presents out of Santa's bag and used foam magnet letters to make the words printed on the presents. 

 In the number work center, they counted the Christmas items on each wedge of the circles and had to clip on the clothespin with the matching number.

The Math Games center had a Christmas tree bingo game where the students rolled two dice, added the amounts together and marked off the sum with an ornament. 

And instead of blocks or trains, the students get to the decorate the classroom tree in the blocks center. This was definitely their favorite center of the week.

The start of December also brought along new Calendar Math.  Each day, once we've discovered the new pattern piece (its an ABCDE pattern this month because I just couldn't hold back from using as many cute Christmas graphics as possible), we count down the days to Christmas.

 The next page allows each child a turn to fill Santa's bag.  Once again, we are working on composing/decomposing teen numbers using a group of ten plus some 'ones' left over.  Instead of a spinner, this month we are using a number generator. A student touches the center of it and it produces a  teen number. Below, Makiah got an 11. She started by pulling in the ten frame (she touches the one on the right side of the page and it duplicates itself) and then she pulled in a single present. While the student is filling the bag, I always give the rest of the students a chance to say how it is made.  I record each number and we compare which number is the highest, the lowest, and if there are any equal numbers.

Next up, it's time to "Deck the Halls with Jack and Coco," and, yes, I do sing that every time.  This page is for practicing several different methods for adding.  We touch the number generators above each character and then I ask the students, "How can we find the sum?" I am looking for them to respond with "use our fingers," "smash the biggest number and count up," and "count the ornaments."  So we do all three methods everyday.  The ornaments in Jack and Coco's hands also duplicate themselves so we place the ornaments on the tree and count them as a way to check our answers after using the first two methods. Once we've solved the addition problem, we place a star beside it. (There is a chart for both classes).

As always, we track our days in school. This month we are using Santa as our marker.  I made one slight change this month. Instead of adding a ones unit each day, I remove all of the base ten blocks, write the number of days in school and then have a student come up and create the number themselves.  This is to teach them what numbers represent, or place value.

Since the students love a little friendly competition between classes, this month we are playing "Race to Santa's Sleigh." They will be playing this in a board game form in the Math Games center next week.

 

 At the end of Calendar Math, if time permits, we touch the number generator and exercise with Santa.  We do an AB or ABC pattern with our exercises.  For example, on Thursday we did jumping jacks, jog in place, and squats all while counting to 61.

During our group writing time, the students learned how to make a list.  We listed the things that  a Christmas tree needs.  Then the students wrote about what their Christmas tree looks like. We made a class list later in the week that told each student's most-desired Christmas present.  These lists will be part of a hallway bulletin board next week.

 Finally, we also began learning about 3D shapes this week. We have been watching this music video by Harry Kindergarten to learn the sphere, cylinder, cube, and cone. I have a kit of real-world 3D shapes that I showed the kids as we sang the song. See if your child can remember any of them. The kids are really enjoying this unit.  Ask your child this weekend to find some of these shapes in your home.

   Next week we will be exploring the 5 senses.  It is, by far, the best week of the year.  We will experiment with a different sense each day -in a Christmas-y way, of course. Your child won't want to miss a day! Have a great weekend and be safe!
       PS: You may have heard about a special visitor in our classroom. Her name is Snowflake and she is our class's scout elf.  The students love to be the first to spot her everyday. 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Par-Tay 2013 (All Photo Edition)