Let's start with St. Patrick's Day (it's my absolute favorite time of the year)! I just love watching the excitement in the children's eyes! First, we set up a trap to catch the Leprechaun. We used a coin as bait :) I put green food coloring in the toilet bowls, sprinkled shamrocks and glitter all over the floor, knocked over some chairs, and tracked green footprints all over the walls. The room looked a mess!! I also left the coin on our trap to make it look like the Leprechaun was not fooled by our trap. When the kids walked in the room, the screaming began! After I settled them down a bit, we began our scavenger hunt which led us to a basket of green sunglasses and gold coins. Even though the children did not "catch" the Leprechaun, they were excited to receive the toys as a prize! Take a look at our fun-filled day below!
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c_or_k.pdf |
In Math, the children learned more about each other by conducting surveys with a partner. Each partnership had a different survey question and walked around with a clipboard to record their classmates responses. The children LOVED this!
I gave the children time to look closely at the two jars and passed out a estimation sheet to each child and asked them to record how many objects they thought were in the estimation jar.
Next, we counted the objects in the estimation jar and discussed the terms much too high, much too low, and pretty close. I asked the children which of these would describe their estimates and why.
Take a look at the estimation powerpoint I created to go along with this lesson:
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estimation_powerpoint_.pdf |
Next, we reviewed a variety of strategies, such as using our fingers, drawing a picture, counting on or back, and using a number line or grid. We also wrote number sentences to go along with each number story.
Finally, the children created their own number story for a class book. They did a great job!
Then, the children created their Leprechaun face. They came out super cute and the children are very proud of them!
During Writer's Workshop, I explained that writers of how-to books often write a special page to introduce their books to help their readers understand the topic. How-to writers often pretend that the people who will read their book have never even heard of the topic, and then they write an introduction page to give the readers some information or facts so that the rest of the how-to book will make sense. When the children sat down to write, I was very impressed to see that many of them added introductions :)
The next day, I explained that in order to make our writing easy to read, we need to include a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence, finger spaces in between our words, punctuation at the end of each sentence and pictures that match our words. The children helped me write a conclusion to our peanut butter and jelly sandwich how-to book by using everything they know about being a good writer. We used our word wall to spell sight words correctly, we used a "spaceman" to make sure we had spaces between our words, and we made sure only the first letter of our sentence started with a capital letter. We edited our work at the end to make sure everything was perfect!! Take a look :)
- Add the Room: Children looked for picture cards, counted each group, and wrote an addition sentence on a recording sheet.
- Word Work Center: Children rolled a die and tapped out the words that matched the number on their die.
- Writing Center: Children worked on their how-to books.
- ABC Center: Students spun their spinner and recorded the beginning sound on their graph.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Take Care,
Diana Nork