Good Ole Abe (Yeehaw)

If I were president I would not let anybody share food.

We have spent the last eight days learning about America's two most well-know presidents; George Washington and "Good Ole Abe" - at least that's the name we gave him in our poem-turned country western song (written by yours truly). Of course, I'm talking about Abraham Lincoln and we studied about him first.

Well, Good ol' Abe was an honest man

He was the president of our land

He wore a tall hat and rode a horse

His face is on the penny of course

Good ol' Abe (Yee-haw)

Good ol' Abe (Yee-haw)

We pulled fact halves out of two different buckets. The students had to read them to figure out if they made sense or not. When they didn't, they had to reach back in and try again. 

 The students gathered facts about Lincoln all around the room and wrote them down when they visited the writing center, doing the Write the Room activity.  For our cumulative project, the students attached the facts they'd written to an Abe Lincoln craft we made as as whole group. They now line the halls of Garth. 

We read stories about Abe's kindness, humor, and forgetfulness. The students wrote in their journals about who they thought was kind (and why), who they thought was funny (and why), and what they forget.

 

I always forget to feed my rabbit.

 One day during indoor recess, it clicked with them."Hey! Mrs. Lukacsko! These are called Lincoln Logs! They look very somber here, but they were really were excited to figure out why those blocks they'd been playing with all year were called Lincoln Logs.

After four days, we moved on to George Washington. One of the ways we learned and memorized all the facts we did about both presidents, was by the group reading we did at the Smartboard every morning.  The students colored the same book that we read together when they went to the book-making center. These books go in their book buckets afterward and are among their choices when they take home an extra book for their reading assignments on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the first day of the week, I read the book one page at a time, letting them echo it back. On the second day and third days, I choose a few student volunteers to read, and then the class echos back. On the fourth and fifth days, student volunteers read without an echo back. After five days of reading it, the facts are well-learned. But what's even better, is that their reading has improved: they've picked up new sight words, practiced decoding strategies, and improved their fluency. Now - they should be able to read that book every time they pull it out of their book bucket in the read-to-self center and when they bring it home as the reading assignment of their choice.

 I was a bit under-prepared with my journal plans this week. I wasn't sure what we'd write about on day one or day four - so you'll notice some don't have the prompt glued above their writing. After reading the first book about Washington, I thought it would be interesting to see what laws the students would make if they were president. Some went a very serious route and took what they'd recently learned from our readings into consideration. 

If I was president, I would want everybody from every state to be free.

If I was president, nobody would fight each other.

While others took the silly route

I would make us play video games all day.

If I was president I would say "No girls painting nails."

If I were president I would not let anybody share food.

 And there was one clear libertarian of the group. 

If I were president I would let anyone do anything. 

 We read a silly book called "George Washington's Cows." It was very much fictional except for the fact that Washington lived on a farm. That prompted this journal writing; Would you want to grow up on a farm? 

I would not want to grow up on a farm but I would like to visit a farm.

Ava, who has a farm, had a lot to say on that subject. 

The students wrote about bravery, too.

I am brave because I rode on the back of a golf cart. 

For the final journal writing of the week, the students wrote about what they'd learned. 

Abe Lincoln was on the penny. He had a horse and rode a horse. His horse's name was Old Bob.

Abe Lincoln was an honest man. Abe was nice and Washington was a solider in the war. 

Washington lost all his teeth and got new teeth.

Abe Lincoln was funny. He was tall. He liked to read. He was kind. Abe was honest.

Our focus in phonics for the past two weeks has been vowel teams. 

We have played this starfall game A LOT to work on them.

We had a lot of fun at out sight word stations this week. I can't get the video to embed, so just click this link and you can go on a tour of those daily stations; hop scotch. spiral writing, play dough, snap cubes, crayon-resist magic words, (and one other station that piqued no one's interest this week- can't win 'em all).

Here's a look at some of the centers and math workshops your child worked in this week. 

The magnet center left me this message one day

 There were three choices in the sight word center. This colorful word search seemed to be the most popular.

Washington is synonymous with cherry tree so we practiced our subtraction with some 

Hi Ho Cherry O

The students continued to work on their estimating by filling up a container with bugs for their partner. Their partner would estimate how many were in the container, then they counted them together on the counting pad

Combining shapes to make other shapes...

 In these last two weeks, we began a unit on money, specifically coins. My goal is that they learn the coin  names, though I am also teaching them the values. They played this coin bingo game to get familiar with the slight differences between the coins.  

 Then on Friday, we made these flip books to reinforce what we'd learned. 

 Ask your child to tell you some of the Abe and Washington facts they learned this week. Chances are they will surprise you with how much they remember. They just couldn't get enough of it! Have a great weekend! 

Curiosity and Kindness

We've been very busy in the last three weeks, in between snow days, of course.  We finally completed two full weeks of learning in a three-week-and-a-day time period. Here's what we've been up to in a (mostly pictures) nutshell.

CURIOUS ABOUT MATTER    

Our first week of February was all about Curious George AND learning about matter. We read stories about George going to the zoo, the pizza parlor, the ice cream shop, the library, and school.  These books inspired our journal writings, ELA centers, and math workshops. 

After reading Curious George and the Pizza, the students told their favorite kind of pizza.

After reading Curious George Goes to School, the students wrote about their favorite things about school. 

 After reading several Curious George books, the students responded to the prompt, "Curious George is always getting into trouble. Tell about a time when you got into trouble."

I got in trouble for not being grateful. 

My brother squirted baby oil in the bathtub because he screamed at me. (Ava just couldn't think of a time when she got into trouble, so I told her it was ok to throw her brother, Carson, under the bus).

I snuck outside and then I got in trouble. Then I got a spanking.

I cut my sister's hair and I blamed that it was my sister Julia's fault.

This child shall remain nameless......

I got in trouble for sneaking into my dad and my mom's (room). 

I refused to make my bed. I always want people to help me make my bed. 

During our science time in the afternoon, we found out what matter was and sorted objects by their state:solid, liquid, or gas.  We watched an ice snowman change states throughout the day (aka "melt").

Then we had an exploration day where we put all of our curiosity to good use.  The students got to mix and strain liquids, change colors in water, discover what solids sink and float, weigh solids, keep a balloon in the air using their breath (it was the only thing I could think of for the gas state), and change a ball of ice into a liquid in order to get to the toy inside. It was FUN and MESSY.

We learned other things, too, of course. Here's a glimpse of the ways we worked on phonics, sight words, reading, and writing that week.

Secret Sight Words

Learned how to read and write words with Super E

Then made our own Super E wands to practice with at home

Melting Snowman Free Write

Our calendar math got a nice February makeover. I'll let this be the segue into Valentine's week.

Spin a number, place that many candy hearts in the ten frame. Then the student picks a number to 'eat' or 'give away' (in order to subtract).




Tracking the days in school - outerspace style.



"Roll" the dice, and put that coin in your team's graph. (Boys vs girls, or course).

We learned about estimation and practiced our new skill with a big old vase full of candy hearts. Each day, a handful of students got to estimate how many hearts were in the vase. I recorded their estimates on the board, making sure no numbers were repeated. On our much belated Valentine's party, we counted them out by putting them into groups of ten and then counting by tens. The student with the closest estimate won a prize. Congratulations, Patrick!

In other learning news - we discovered how vowel teams work... 

Worked with some new sight words...

Made hexagons with lots of different shape combinations...

Composed teen numbers using base ten blocks... 

 Practiced number recognition in Yahtzee-meets-Bingo kind of game (with a Valentine twist).

Added dice to color a special coloring sheet.

As a whole group, we focused on acts of kindness for Valentine's week.  We began the week by learning a new tradition (which is really a very old tradition as my kindergarten teacher did this with me many moons ago).  You see, at this time of year, it can be easy to regress into old habits.  The students forget how to treat others in the same manner that they want to be treated. So I brought in a pair of golden gloves (Thank you, Amazon).

And I put them on one finger at a time and then pulled each glove down all the way.  With each push and tug, I recited a word/syllable of the golden rule. 

Do un-to others as -(the first five fingers)

You would have them do - (other five fingers)

Unto (pull down over wrist)

You (pull down over other wrist)

We discussed what this Golden Rule means: treat others the way you want to be treated. Then we went through some examples. "Do you want your friends to argue with you? Then don't argue with them. Do you like it when your classmates include you? Then include them." And so on.  We now put on our "golden gloves" every morning as we gather together on the carpet.

To get in the habit again of thinking of others, the students made special valentines for the Garth staff each day of the week.  On the first day, we made one giant Valentine poster to hang in the hallway for our custodians. 

The next day, they made Valentines for the cafeteria staff.

On the third day, we made some for our Specials teachers. 

Our journal writings were about what it means to be a good friend- one of those things being trustworthiness. I asked the students (after reading Arthur's Valentine) who they trusted to keep a secret. Ava trusted her rabbit.....

 Johannah doesn't trust anybody.

 Owen trusts his pets

 And Patrick trusts his brother and sister.

 The Friday just before Valentines was supposed to be our Valentine party. But that day and the day before we had a third of our class out sick. Yes- a THIRD. So I asked them, "If you were sick on the day of the Valentine party, would you want to miss out on all the fun?" Of course they said no. So I suggested we wait for our seven friends to be well after the weekend and then have the party.  Now this is a pretty tough thing to ask a 5/6 year old to do. I mean - postpone a party and all that candy?!  But they agreed, and that's just what we did. Except it wasn't Monday that we had the party. As you know, Mother Nature had other plans. So our Valentine party came on Wednesday. We also made our last special Valentine that day. This one was for the birds - literally! It went along with the poem we'd been learning that week. 

And then FINALLY - we had our much anticipated party!

The funniest valentines I have ever seen!

I'll leave you with one of the most precious (and initially candid) pics of this year that shows genuine kindness and friendship. These two friends, holding hands coming in from recess. MELTED MY HEART, I tell ya!