Trick or Treat

This is my favorite week of the year...Halloween week.  We did some fun activities to prepare for the holiday.  We finished up our Best Costume Ever writing project with some AWESOME illustrations.  Who knew this class was such talented artists?

We also read one a book called The Ugly Pumpkin.  The book was about a pumpkin that looked different from the other pumpkins and was treated unfairly because of it.  In the end, it turned out that he was a squash and he found other squashes who welcomed him. The students created their own ugly pumpkins and wrote about a time when they felt "squashed."

My favorite activity this week was asking the students what they thought I should be for Halloween and why.  A few suggestions were a monkey (because she likes monkeys), bat girl (because she's cool) and an angel (because she already is one!)

In math this week we starting looking more closely at numbers and different ways to represent numbers.  We wrote numbers in expanded form and number form. Then we made models for numbers using drawings like base 10 blocks.

We finished up our community unit is social studies with an assessment this week.  Look for that to come next week to be signed and returned.  In science we continued "rolling" using cups down our ramps.  We had challenges like the "park the car" challenge and the "fall on your face" challenge.

You may have heard that there are some funny videos out there of the students.  If you would like to see the links, email me and I will forward them to you!! 

Here's a good one for you to see... Mrs. Wells is Hungry!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Rolling, Rolling

This week in science we started investigating a new motion...rolling.  The students were given "wheels and axles" and had to put them together in a way that will make them roll down a ramp.

Then the students were given challenges like making the wheels wobble and making them roll to one side using a smaller wheel.

We started our new unit, Place Value, in math this week. To practice Place Value we played some math games.  

Our essential question this week was "How do animals survive?"  We read about a second grade class that visited the swamp and learned about how the swamp animals adapt to their habitat.  We practiced finding the beginning, middle and end of a story.

Thank you for your help by sending in the Halloween pictures for our writing project this week.  The topic of our writing assignment was "The Best Costume Ever."  We had to support our opinion with reasons why we thought this costume was the best.  Here's a glimpse of the costume I used....

Have a great weekend.

Guess Who?

This week as a fun activity for the upcoming Halloween holiday the students made ghosts.  But these were not ordinary ghosts….they were mystery ghosts.  The students had to write 5 clues about themselves.  Each student's photo is hiding under their "ghost sheet."  Look closely at the photos…can you guess who your child is?

To end our first unit in reading this week, we did a research project.  The students were given the task of creating a pet sitting business.  They needed to first research online how to care for two kinds of pets.  Then they needed to name their business and make a brochure to promote this business. 

This week in math we have been working on number stories.  We focused on three different types of word problems.  This is a difficult concept for several students.  When working on at home, try to look for the clues in the number story that help solve the problem.  For example, "how many more" is usually subtraction and "how many in all" is addition.  We will continue to practice often throughout the year these concepts.

In writing, we wrote a fictional narrative about meeting a silly scarecrow.  We had some crazy stories with some silly scarecrows.  In social studies, we continued learning about the three types of communities.  One of the most exciting things we did this week was in science.  We continued discussing the "spinning" motion.  We created three different types of twirly birds.  And thanks to our new playground with lots of high places to climb, we were able to test them out. Here's one of our twirly birds sailing through the playground.

Please remember to send in those Halloween costume pictures!!!

If you haven't already…get out your winter clothing.  I hear you may need it this weekend.  

Fire Prevention Week

This week we took a walk over to our new community firehouse.

The firefighters gave us a tour around the firehouse and showed us all about the fire trucks and the ambulance.

We even got to cheer on Firefighter Molly as she practiced getting all her gear on.  Did you know that in order to pass the fireman's entrance exam, you must be able to get your gear on within 2 minutes?





We met with our Book Buddies this week.  The fourth graders helped us put together our Ivans that we painted.  Then we wrote newspaper articles about Ivan.

In math, we added and subtracted zero and then we built fact family houses.  As a fun addition to this idea, we created Haunted Fact Family Houses.  Thanks to my dear old friend who designed these for us.  

Our essential question in reading this week was "What happens when families work together?"  We read about how families can share jobs within the household, how different family members have jobs outside the household and how families work together in both.

In social studies, we began our unit on the three types of communities.  We even read a Scholastic News article which emphasized this lesson.  In science, we ZOOOOMED... We created zoomers to demonstrate the motion of spinning.  The students had a great time.  Next week we will be twirling!!

Keep in mind that Friday is a Teacher's Inservice day and Monday school is closed for everyone.  Enjoy the long fall weekend.  

October is My Favorite Month

I love October.  I love seeing the leaves changing colors. I love Halloween.  It's also my favorite month for making desk groups.

So far, the bats are in the lead.  There is still a lot of time left for the other groups!

We started subtraction facts this week in math.  We practiced using different strategies. One strategy would be to count up or down on number grid or number line. Of course, practicing and knowing the subtraction facts would be best.  We took a subtraction facts quiz today and the students did great!!

Our essential question this week was "How do we care for animals?"  We read about different kinds of vets.  Some vets take care of pets, while others take care of farm animals or zoo animals like the ones shown in the picture.

The students were introduced to Ivan this week.  We watched a video of the real Ivan who lived in a shopping mall.  We started a project that we will be finishing up with our book buddies next week. Stay tuned for pictures...

In social studies, we finished up our first unit on community.  After designing a community badge, the students took their first social studies assessment.  Look for those to come home in the Friday folder.  

The students had a blast this week in science.  We moved from balance to the motion part of the unit.  Their task was to create a top with a green straw and a few plastic discs.  This was to demonstrate the motion of spinning.  Then the students were given different design to put on the top and made predictions about what would happen when the design was spinning.  

The students had REACH today.  They have been learning about ocean animals.  Today they listened to a book about vertebrates and invertebrates.  Then they were asked to identify which animals were which.  

I hope no one had any big plans for the weekend as it looks like it may be a washout!!