Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

 

This post title has more than one meaning this week. We spent our whole group reading and writing time on the parts of a clock and telling time to the hour. We played some new active "working memory" games (more on the importance of those and what those are next week) which had the children moving about, partnering up, and telling each other the parts of the clock.  The week culminated with a sentence building activity. I cut up the sentences on our clock anchor chart and gave each student one of the words.  They had to find the right partners to put the sentences back together. 

 

 

 We wrote about clocks in our journals. This week Selena and Leland are featured from the PM class. I am so proud of my class full of writers!

 We played "Race the Clock" in the Number Work center. The students used counter bears as their game pieces. Whatever they rolled on the dice, they moved that many minutes ahead. (There are minute marks on the clock, you just can't see them in this picture). This reinforced how the minute hand has to go around the clock one whole time before the hour can change.

 Another fun center this week (that had nothing to do with clocks) was the Math Games center.  Here the students had to spin the spinner and subtract that many dirty teeth by brushing them with a toothbrush.  (I used a dry-erase marker on a paper protector).  I'm pretty sure they thought they were doing magic!   

This post's title also refers to our time with the wonderful Ms. Kendall, who has been our student teacher since January.  Friday was our last day with her, awwww. The kids brought her cards, gifts, and treats and said good-bye with lots of hugs.  She's heading to a 4th grade class at another school on Monday.  Wherever she ends up after that, we know she'll be a fantastic teacher.

 

Along with all this fun, this week was quite busy with our math open house and picture day. I'll leave you with pics from those events. 

 

 

Abigail's mom was the only parent to look up for the camera!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEUSS-A-PALOOZA

This week all my Pinterest dreams came true! From cute Seuss snacks to Seuss-themed centers, I got to take a swing (and so did some of you!) at many of the ideas I'd been pinning for the last several weeks.  We had a blast reading Dr. Seuss books everyday and working on our rhyming skills. We not only practiced rhyming, but also writing lists of rhyming words.  I emphasized that when you write rhyming words, you change the first letter and keep the rest. Hopefully, your child should be able to tell you this!

On Tuesday we read "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" and the students got to make their own silly rhyming sentence in their journals. 

 

These were so much fun and we could really see the creative wheels just a'spinnin' in their heads. 

     The next day was "Dress as Your Favorite Book Character" day.  (They did not need to be from a Seuss book, any book would do).  

Jaden and Mrs. Armishaw had the same character in mind!

As did Caitlyn and Mrs. Taylor!

Same as Antonella and me

And Amirah and Kennedy

And Alex and Tesla!

Harper and Makiah were in cahoots.

 And many chose to be royalty like Liliana and Natalie

And Abigail and Ava

But Layton was unique! (as were a few other students).

 

Now, on to those Pinterest ideas....

     In Word Work, the students cracked open green eggs (no ham). Inside they found the letters they needed to make two rhyming words.  They then sorted the rhyming words into their rime (promise thats the right way to spell it in this sense) families. 

 

In the computer center, we took a week off from raz-kids and played Dr. Seuss games on pbskids.org.   

    In the Writing center, the students played "Seuss Word or Sight Word?." They pulled small, folded up pieces of paper out of a box, unfolded it and determined if it was a silly made-up Seuss word or one of the sight words listed on their worksheet.  If they found a sight word, they wrote it on the worksheet.  They needed to find each sight word three times.

 

 

     In Number Work, they simply had to match up the Seuss-y numbers onto a hundred chart.  I say "simply," but it was actually quite challenging!

     In Math Games, they got their first bit of practice with telling time on an analog clock to the hour with the game, "Truffula Tree Time." They spun only the hour hand on a Lorax-faced clock. They found that time on their truffula tree trunk and traced it (with a marker -ooooo).  Once they'd gotten all of their times traced, they got to color their truffula tree.

 

We ended the week with our Seuss Feast.  Thank you to all the grown-ups who sent things in - some of you even created those cute Seuss-themed treats I'd been eyeing on Pinterest.  I lucked out this year (and have every year, really) and got all awesome, helpful parents/grandparents/aunts and you guys ROCK! You made it such a special event for the kiddos. And now, I leave you with the pics of our Fun Friday/Seuss Feast.



PM class's cupcakes

PM class's One Fish Two Fish Jello



They had fun going fishing in the jello!

We played "Quiz,Quiz -(Without the Trade)." The students had to pair up and read
each others' rhyming words.