Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well I wish we would have had more snow than ice, but it is still January. Who wants to bet we will have a snow day in March, when we are all ready for rainbows and warmer temps?  Anyway, this Polar Bear is enjoying a winter wonderland in his home in Toledo. Check this out!

Pocket Zoo is a $1.99 app, but they do have a free version, Free! I was so excited when I stumbled upon the app last week. You can click on any animal, see photos, hear the sound the animal makes, and check out LIVE web cams from around the world. How cool is that?!

So on Thursday we hooked the iPad up to the SMARTboard and clicked on the Polar Bear. There are two zoos hooked up for the Polar Bear. The Canadian Zoo had a lot of snow, so we figured we would not see a Polar Bear. I turned on the Toledo live cam. I told the students not to get too excited because I had yet to see the Polar Bear when I was exploring the app. So I began my lesson and all of the sudden the kids begin to shout..."there he is!" I think it was the highlight of our week. We took a screenshot so all of you could see him too. Here is a photo of the lesson.

I cannot wait to use this app when teaching Penguins next week. Can you tell I'm a little excited about this app?
Students are learning much about the polar bear. They were fascinated to learn that the skin of a polar bear is actually black. To help us remember this, students traced a polar bear on black construction paper and colored the polar bear with chalk. We will continue our study on Tuesday.

So earlier in the week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. The students really enjoyed watching Martin's Big Words on Scholastic BookFlix. I must say, I was moved to tears myself. They played parts of MLK Jr.'s "I have a dream speech."

We also read a biography online about MLK Jr.

We began a new unit in Math.  All about measurement. We learned how to correctly measure the length of an object using nonstandard units.

I'm off to get ready for the exciting week ahead. Chinese New Year, Polar Bears, and Penguins...Oh, My!

Snow Dance

Today we read Snow Dance by Lezlie Evans for our Rounding up the Rhymes book. Each student is going home tonight and doing a snow dance for a snow day. Well, all but one who said she loved school so much she did not want a snow day. (Melt my heart!)

Here is another photo that shows why I love this career. During Reading Workshop, students are to be working independently in their book boxes. I heard some "louder than usual" reading. I turned and saw this...

This is what it is all about!

Speaking Reading Workshop, this week we worked on retelling a familiar book. Students volunteered to model how good readers retell.

We finally finished up our short vowel work this week. We completed several activities, such as picture sorts and making words. Third quarter means long vowels!

In Math we worked on surveys and representations. Students learned how equations show the results of the survey.

Our little scientists continued their study of matter this week with a focus on snow. We had SO much fun making these Borax Crystals. Students created snowflakes out of pipe cleaner. Then we soaked the snowflakes in a mixture of hot water and borax. Students made predictions about what would happen. Some students said nothing, others said it would turn brown. Ask your student about the results. I will post photos soon...because of course I forgot to take some today :).
Here is a photo of the snowflakes soaking in the mixture.

We also watched a video on Snowflake Bentley and made adorable snowmen.

It was a fun week. We will complete a short study on Martin Luther King Jr. and then move onto Polar Animals.

Who Dey!

That was going to be my title when I planned on posting this yesterday. Even though the Bengals lost, we had fun on Friday, supporting out favorite team. I just LOVE this photo! Our Steelers fan was not too happy with all the Bengals fans. They are playing right now.  I think he might have that face when he arrives at school tomorrow morning...Maybe they'll make a comeback.

 

I couldn't resist taking this photo. The two students who support other teams than the Bengals are Literacy Station partners. The pocket chart station is right in front of my reading table. I just laughed when I saw them working together.

Now onto our week...

Here is our new behavior board. This was taken before we started on Tuesday. 

Our Attendance board for the month of January.

This week we worked on short u.

We also began our data analysis unit in Math.

We sorted buttons by different attributes. The top group sorted by color, middle group by number of holes, and bottom group by size.

We also played Guess My Rule.

His rule was "Big Shells."

 

Her rule was "Things you can sit on."

 

He stumped us. Can you guess?...Michigan Colors! HaHaHa!

Here is our January calendar.

We're counting to the 100th Day of school. Less than 20 school days!

Our theme this week is about Matter. We examined the characteristics of ice. Through our experiment students learned about solids and liquids. We also learned that liquids will change shape, but solids will not.

Finally, I will leave you with our New Year's Resolutions. This year we want to stop biting our nails, eat healthier food, and get stronger. Happy New Year!

Computers Symphony and Tornadoes. Oh My!

It is only Tuesday, but we have had so much new learning that I couldn't wait to share it with you. The students arrived Monday to this morning message. We did inferring with the words in the morning message.

After our Morning Meeting we headed to Computers. Students had to use the Shapes Software to fill in one of the Pattern Block Puzzles. The challenge: Fill it with as few pattern blocks as possible. Then, fill it again with as many pattern blocks as possible.

Then students could free explore.

Today students were treated to Schoolhouse Symphony in the morning. This great program teaches students about instruments and music elements.

The students have been waiting to learn about Tornadoes. We did a minilesson to go along with our Wizard of Oz theme. It was probably the most favorite activity of the year so far. We began by reading the book It's a Tornado!

Next, we created our own tornado using two liter bottles, tape, and water. It was a HIT! It leaked a bit, but was a great visual for the students. I modeled several times. Then pulled a name to let a student try.

Next, we drew what we observed and had to write about how a tornado is formed.

I love how this student showed the water leaking from the bottles. Very detailed!

We ended the lesson by completing a Tornado Tree Map together. We wrote what tornadoes can, have, and are. Students said that Tornadoes can be dangerous and spin. Tornadoes have wind, air, moisture. Tornadoes are powerful!, strong, and big.

Now tomorrow we will learn about rainbows and do some more inferring. We are counting down the days to our field trip!

What's Alive?

We had a great week as scientists. We explored living and nonliving. Students drew pictures of something they saw outside. Next, we sorted the drawings. But the class could not decide if the leaves on the ground were living or nonliving. With some help from the book, What's Alive?, students discovered that the leaves on the ground were "once living." So we created a new category. Finally, we did a new sort on the SMARTboard.

Check out some cute photos below of us enjoying our once living lesson.