Blog Neglect and the 100th Day of School

Oh my goodness, there has been nary a blog post in this space since the beginning of March.  We call that total blog neglect.  I have some catching up to do.

In February, yes way back in February we celebrated the hundredth day of school. The kids had a blast celebrating the day and I was happy with the activities.  Over the years, I have simplified one hundred day, but I am still happy with the results.

The kids were greeted with this at their table spots when they arrived in the morning.  I found this adorable idea here.

We made these one hundred hats to celebrate being 100 Days Smarter.

We made Froot Loop necklaces.  This year, to make it easier to keep track, after every ten, we placed a numbered paper on the string.

We have been working on estimating, so one of the stations included some candy filled estimating jars.

We built with one hundred things.

We did a number search, circling numbers that added up to one hundred.

By far the biggest hit of the day was the game, I can find one hundred numbers.  I hid coloured numbers around the room from one to one hundred. Each student was given a hundred chart and a clipboard and they search the room for the numbers and colour them the correct colour.

We ended the day by reflecting on our learning.  This was my favourite part of the day, watching the kids write down the things they have learned in the first one hundred days of school.

Math: 3D Shapes Who Am I Activity

I found this lesson in a great book,  Math and Nonfiction by Jamee Petersen.  On the first day of introducing the lesson, we read the book Cubes, Cones Cylinders and Spheres by Tana Hoban.  We talked about the examples in the book and all the other places we see these shapes in our own lives.  I gave them each a paper lunch bag with the homework instructions typed onto it.

On the following morning as the students arrived, I wrote a note on the chalkboard asking students to put their bags at their seats, but not to share the contents with anyone.  I had extra bags for students who did not bring any items.

At the beginning of the lesson, I read the clues for the items in my own bag to model I expected of them for this lesson.  They had fun trying to guess the items in my bag. After setting some criteria and talking about what their clues had to include, I sent them off to write their own clues.

This is M's first clue and item.  He focused on the tennis balls inside the container.

I am fuzzy and I am green.  You can hit me.  I love aces.

What shape am I?  What am I?

I am black.  You can keep balls inside me.  I am clear.   I have

a flat face.  What shape am I?  What am I?

I chose this example because this student is a reluctant writer and to see him write this much on his own and take this risk made me so happy.  

 I have 9 spaces on the outside.  And it have a lot of colours on it.  What shape am I. 

 And it have 6 faces too.

I love this one because I love bugles.  Yummy. The kids had a hard time with this one, but mostly because I don't think they eat them that often.

 I am a toy that can transform.  I am like a ball.  I have o faces.

 I am something that is a circle.  Some people put water in me.

I am from the house center.  What am I?

I have a circle on my top and a point on my bottom.  I have been used

to hold ice cream and taste delicious.  What am I?

At the end of the lesson, we formed a sharing lesson.  Each person chose their favourite clue and item and shared it with the class.  The class then had to guess the object.  They liked this so much that they didn't want it to end.  So then we broke into smaller groups and gave students the opportunity to share another one of their clues.

Math: Geometry Problem Solving

We continue to have a great time in math this term.  The kids have been exploring 3D objects through sorting them into groups according to one attribute (e.g. these all have 4 sides), building towers and looking for these shapes in the real world.  When we work with 2D shapes, we also sort them according to one attribute and also replicate objects and create other shapes using shape materials such as pattern blocks and tangrams.  We still do problem solving on a regular basis.  Here is a geometry related problem that we completed recently.

There are 3 shapes in a bag.  The total number of sides is 13.  What could the shapes be?

What I like about this problem is that it allows the children to demonstrate their knowledge of 2 dimensional shapes and there are many possible outcomes.

The kids organize their thinking in many different ways.  It is another thing I love about problem solving.  We almost always include a debrief or sharing time at then end of a problem solving lesson.  We ask kids to share their strategies.  Sometimes we let anyone share.  Other times, we target specific kids to share a strategy that we think could support other students.  Throughout the year, students develop quite a repertoire of strategies that they are comfortable using.

Some used equations with the shape name written underneath.

Other children created equations, but instead of numbers drew the shapes.

Others chose to "act it out" with pattern blocks and then trace the blocks onto the page.

Some kids asked me the name of ten sided and thirteen sides shape so they could use them in their equations.  Thanks to google we had some fun trying to pronounce some of their names.

This student, used equations and then the initial letter of each shape underneath to show which shape he was referring to.

Pattern Party

The class had worked hard during our patterning unit in Math.  The children were engaged in activities around describing, reproducing, extending and creating different patterns.  As a way to end the unit, we had a Pattern Party to celebrate our learning.  We started by brainstorming all the things we needed to have a party.  The list they came up with included things like games, decorations, food, music, dancing, party clothes, invitations, gifts and loot bags.  While I wasn't prepared to give gifts or make goodie bags, (I have three children of my own and three goodie bags a year is quite enough for me) the rest was very much doable.  The children loved preparing all the things for the party.   It goes to show that when children are given tasks that are meaningful and have a purpose, they are highly engaged.  Before the party, we created patterned paper chains to use as the decorations to hang around the room and the children decorated their own cups and plates using circular patterns.  Each child created a patterned invitation telling their parents all about the details of the party.  We also decided that everyone would have to wear a pattern to the party.  The big day finally arrived.


Party Plan
1:00 - 1:15  Dancing with a pattern (We learned the pattern for and did the Macarena and Chicken Dance)


1:15 - 2:00  Pattern Party Centers
                             The children rotated through 3 centers.
                             -creating a patterned fruit loop necklace
                             -making a patterned crown
                             -Each of the children had brought in a piece of fruit.  At this center, they cut
                              the fruit and made their own patterned fruit kabob.


2:00 - 2:15   Patterned Counting Game
We played a game where the children sat in a circle.  One person is the king or queen and they get to sit on a chair.  The object of the game is to try and remove the king or the queen from the chair.  The only way to remove them from the chair is to get them to say the "magic" number.  At the beginning, the teacher must determine how the children will count and what the "magic" number will be for the game.  To begin, we counted by 10's and the "magic" number was 100.  The person to the right of the king or queen, begins the counting.  Going around the circle, each player says one or two numbers.  Whoever says 100 has to move to the beginning spot beside the king or queen.  The counting starts again by the person who was sitting beside where the child who had just said 100.  The game can be changed to counting by 5's to 50 or count by 2's to 20 etc.




2:15 - 2:30  We had snacks.  The children ate their fruit kabobs and had juice.


2:30 - 2:45   We tried to create our own party music.  The children tried to create their own patterns using instruments.  Noisy but lots of fun!

A great time had by all!

Valentine Inches

I was feeling that people reading the blog would wonder if we ever got excited about anything but BIG THINKING!  Of course, my much more dedicated blog partner beat me to posting Art.  Oh well, better late than never!

I was totally excited about trying something I saw on one of my favourite art blogs.  The ideas on her blog are truly amazing. The only down part is they are usually big projects that have many steps.  

http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2011/02/valentine-inchies-classroom-results.html

I began by setting up 8 different centers for creating the backgrounds for the squares.  For the ninth square, each child got a piece of newspaper.   I quickly explained and demonstrated each center and then told them to visit each center at their own time.  Each of them had a piece of newspaper on the counter or floor where they would put their squares when they were done.  The centers I did were:

-salad spinner painting

-marble painting

-splatter painting

-painting stripes using water colours

-painting the entire square with water colour paints

-collaging with tissue paper

-stamping with tempura paint using different circles (glue lids, marker caps etc)

-painting a square and then using a fork to create lines

Add some white glue to the paint.  Lay tissue paper on top and scrunch it to add texture. 

marble painting

splatter painting

painting stripes with water colours

Add a few drops of paint to the card and then spin away.

Stamp different sized circles on the sqaure.

The next day, we began by having a quick lesson about how to make a heart.  We also talked collaging and how to choose colours and add details without adding too much.  I then provided them with different materials to finish their squares.  Some of the supplies included: tissue paper, tin foil, fabric, doilies, felt, different coloured paper and newsprint.

I just love how they turned out.  I think you could do this project for any holiday.  I may even try it again for Easter!