I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!
Here are some highlights from our week.
ONE: Plant Unit
We finally finished our unit on plants this week. The kids did an awesome job collecting and recording information about plants in their science folders. To finish out the unit my kiddos planted several different seeds. They loved that they got to pick the seed they planted. Let's hope all the seeds sprout... perhaps I should plant a few extras next week to avoid end of year disappointment when I send home the sprouts!
Love these little planters from Walmart. I paid $6 for 24 and the kiddos can bring them home and plant them right in the ground... so convenient and easy for the families.
TWO: Fairy Tales
We finished reading fairy tales this week and the kiddos were kind of bummed when I told them we were done... they truly enjoyed listening to these stories. They did a great job making connections between the stories each day. Next week we'll be writing about our favorite fairy tale. I can't wait to see which stories the kids pick as their favorites.As we read several stories this week we charted each of the stories according to different fairy tale elements. This helped us to compare and contrast the stories.
Today I pulled out these fairy tale and folk tale mini-books. They range in level from G-J. Most of my kiddos are reading above this level but they still enjoyed taking a few minutes to read another fairy tale or two before the unit was over. Sometimes it's nice for the kids to read just to read and enjoy. We don't do that enough and it's kind of sad! :(
We started regrouping this week and my kiddos rocked it!! I love starting with this regrouping work mat before we turn to regrouping when adding vertically. I think it's so important for the kids to see why and how we regroup before we show them the actual computations.
Today we moved from the work mat to the computations and I was so proud of my kiddos. A few years ago I realized that 6 and 7 year old minds need to see the two digit number they get when they add the ones place before they can carry the ten to the tens place.
I have my kids write the number to the side of the problem, draw a line down the middle, label the tens and ones and then move the ones down and the tens up. This seems to really help them understand regrouping and ensures they don't miss a step.
Today we moved from the work mat to the computations and I was so proud of my kiddos. A few years ago I realized that 6 and 7 year old minds need to see the two digit number they get when they add the ones place before they can carry the ten to the tens place.
I have my kids write the number to the side of the problem, draw a line down the middle, label the tens and ones and then move the ones down and the tens up. This seems to really help them understand regrouping and ensures they don't miss a step.
This week we began a unit on outer space and I cannot be more excited! When I was in elementary school I was obsessed with outer space... I had a telescope and practically every kids book written about space. Apollo 13 was my favorite movie and to date, I've probably seen the movie 200 times... not kidding!!
That being said my enthusiasm has waned a bit but I still find outer space completely fascinating so I'm happy to share it with my kiddos. This week we began by learning about the sky, the atmosphere and outer space as well as how the earth moves (rotates and revolves). Next week we'll move on to what causes day and night as well as the moon and stars.
That being said my enthusiasm has waned a bit but I still find outer space completely fascinating so I'm happy to share it with my kiddos. This week we began by learning about the sky, the atmosphere and outer space as well as how the earth moves (rotates and revolves). Next week we'll move on to what causes day and night as well as the moon and stars.
FIVE: Friday Morning Surprise
One of my sweet kiddos brought me this huge bouquet of lilacs... what a great way to start a gloomy Friday the 13th. The classroom smelled amazing all day!!
Have a great weekend.. Don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts!
