The Life Cycle of a Snowman and So Much More!

It was good to be finally back last week!  On top of our two weeks off for the holidays, we then had a whole additional week due to the weather!  We had a very busy week!  We began our first day back with a visitor in our classroom!

We named him Olaf!  I am guessing many of them saw the movie, Frozen over our break!  

We used Olaf to introduce our science unit on matter.  Olaf was made of ice and we discussed how a solid keeps its shape unless someone or something causes a change.  I found this great project from The Frugal Teacher!

As the day passed, we observed changes!  He was melting due to a change in temperature!  We left Olaf overnight so that we could continue to observe him the next day.

This is what we returned to school to find!  Olaf had continued to turn into a liquid!

We also heated water to observe the "gas."
The Frugal Teacher also provided a link to Lauren Lynes from Simply Second Grade's TPT Freebie.
We applied our writing skills to record our observations.

All year we have been learning new comprehension skills.  During Daily 5, we listened to the story, The Snow Child, by Harriet Ziefert.  

We then made text to self connections and recorded them in our Reader's Response Notebook.

Our text talk book this week was, The Hatseller and the Monkeys, by Baba Wague Diakite.

This story is very similar to the book, Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina.

We made text to text connections and recorded them in our Readers Response notebooks.  I got this free printable from Just a Primary Girl.  

This week we also had a mystery to solve!  I used Jodi Southard's  Ouch what Happened Pack! When the students returned from lunch/recess, their teacher had a band aid on her forehead!  They all wanted to know what "happened!"  We read clues that were posted around the room.  Each clue included ou/ow words  and brought us one step closer to the story.  

After each clue, the students drew a picture of their own predictions of what had happened. 

After the mystery was solved, they each recorded what had "happened" using as many ou/ow words from as possible.

We also learned about the sound that oi and oy make.  It reminds us of the a pig making the "oink" sound!  We cut and glued oi and oy words to a pink cup and used it as a pig snout to help us remember!

Please stop by again soon to see what we have been up to!



Snow Ice Cream!

Well, today was our second snow day and tomorrow it looks like we will still be home due to the snowy roads and chilling temperatures!  Today the kids and I made ice cream using snow!  They had a blast and want to make more tomorrow!

I have seen a few different version of instructions.  We went with the one from About.com Family Crafts.

Making Snowflakes on a Snow Day!

My own kiddos and I were supposed to go back to school today.  However, due to all of the snow and the windchill factor, we were home today and will also be tomorrow.  I had been wanting to try out a neat snowflake craft with my kiddos and today was the perfect day for it.  I found the idea and instructions at Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational blog.

I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics and her Monday Made It and Skip to My Lou's Made by you Monday!!  Check out all the other projects that everyone has linked up with!

    

Conferences and Math

 

 

 

 This week we have been busy preparing for conferences!  Here are a few projects that we have been working on!

 

 

 

 

 

The pumpkins sight words are from Abby's Spelling for All Seasons Part One.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In class we have also been very busy using our ten frames and our new rekenreks!  I found these awesome magnetic ten frames from AEI Education.  They are working perfect for our Number Talks and daily math lessons.  We continue to work on our doubles.

 

 

I found this wonderful how to post from the Math Coach's Corner on making these  My daughter spent an evening putting these together.  They are working out great in the classroom!

 

 

Our focus in comprehension has been SCHEMA!  We used the idea from Tammy McGregor's Comprehension Connections book           to use the lint roller!  This printable and idea came from Crisscross Applesauce.  Each child wrote about their schema about school on a sheet like the one below.

 

Then, in their Reader Response notebook, they chose a topic to write about their schema.  The child below wrote about her schema on gymnastics.

 

We have been busy learning many of our word chunks!  Hello Literacy has another set as well.  I pull from both sets.  Heidisongs' Sounds Fun Phonics DVD and cards are a great addition to our day!  The children love her videos!

 

 

 

 

Fall Has Arrived!

 

Last week we studied about apples!  We made a sweet treat....apple turnovers!   The idea came from Kasey Buick.

 

 

Our apple projects are from First Grade Blue Skies.  I love her products!

 

 

We have been learning about nouns!  I loved these poster and interactive notebook ideas from Rowdy in Room 300!  We had to make them too!

 

 

 

We have also been working hard on our writing!  This week we practiced using marshmallows to remind us to use spaces.  We also circled our nouns!  This idea came from First Grade Parade.

 

 

On Friday, we began our study of diagraphs.  We started with /th/.  We made "thinking thumbs" from First Grade Wowand brainstormed th words. 

 

 

Our class also made fall trees.  These will be on display during conferences.

 

 

We were introduced to adding doubles.  We used ten frames to help us with this skill.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Teeny, we have loved earning gold tags each and every day.  We love using them for Fun Friday even more!  Here is our chart of choices and some pictures of our activities!

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally a Classroom Reveal!

 

Has is it really been since July?!!  It has been so busy!  The rest of my summer was filled with time with my family, camping, and getting ready for school! 

Since school began four weeks ago, it has been full speed ahead!  Here is a quick look at my classroom.  I will be sharing more soon!

 

 

This is my Café board, Daily 5 clip chart and my Fun Friday clip chart.  Fun Friday is an awesome event every week along with the daily Gold Tags that they earn.  Thanks to Teeny, my kiddos and I go bonkers over this system!  Check out her post for all of the info and free printables!

 

For Open House I had their folder all ready, a Lucky Charm gift, and a classroom hunt.  The classroom hunt is from Little Warriors.   The labels for the Lucky Charms are from Classroom Freebies.

Our Classroom Library