Measurement

We have started our unit on measurement.  The students were given a one inch, one foot, and one yard long piece of ribbon and asked to find things that are about that long.  They were to search around the room and use what they know to find things that were close to the same size.  It was a lot of fun to see them get up and explore the room.  Today, we made the connection of how many inch ribbons we have to put together to make a foot (12) and how many feet ribbons we have to put together to make a yard (3).  We even did a few conversion problems together.  They are quite the mathematicians!

Field Trip!

This morning we went to Derby Dinner Playhouse to see the play Charlotte's Web!  The students had so much fun!!

Lucky Charms Measurement

Today we introduced measurement by measuring with Lucky Charms!  We measured several small items from in our desks like: a pencil, marker, glue stick, journal, folder, etc...  After we measured all of the items we discussed our different lengths.  Many of the students had different numbers written down.  This started a great discussion about the different size of some of the objects or how we laid out the cereal. The journals and folders though were the same in size, so why do we have different measurements?  After lots of great math talk we decided Lucky Charms were delicious, but not a good unit to measure with. Tomorrow we will start our measurement with standard units!

Green Treat

I couldn't contain my excitement so we celebrated today with green cookies!

ALL GREEN!!!

The students knocked this quarterly math test out of the park!  These are the best math scores we have had all year!  I'm blown away with excitement.  I could not be more proud of them.  Thank you so much for all of your help and support this past quarter.  This was one of the most difficult tests of the year.  It is very difficult to switch from 2 digit to 3 digit, addition, subtraction, with regrouping, and without.  We will certainly celebrate soon. 
I would like your support on something though.  I tried to approach this test differently.  I made a big stink about how awesome test day is.  I told the students that this is their time to show off to Mrs. Suer and the other teachers in the building.  We 'celebrated' taking a test.  I made the students go very slow and we stopped a few times for a little break and breathing. My hope is to work on eliminating stress and anxiety when taking a test.  Some of the students often miss questions because they didn't slow down or pay attention to the directions.  Rushing is often a sign of anxiety.  We will continue to approach tests this way throughout the remainder of the year.  If it continues to result in great scores than we have a great new way to attack ISTEP and IREAD next year.  I want to see each kiddo reach their full potential on those high-stakes testing.
I will have some type of "green" treat for them tomorrow!  I want them to really feel good about all their hard work this quarter!  Way to go!!

Dolphin Tale

We have FINALLY started one of my favorite units of the year!  I always fight to get this one in because it is near and dear to my heart.  In writing we have started our shared research unit so for our classroom read aloud I am reading Dolphin Tale.  A former aide of mine brought me this book several years ago and I have been reading it ever since.  Each time I have read it, it has sparked the interest of my class.  The students really enjoy studying dolphins while reading this book so we better understand this amazing creature.  I was fortunate enough to visit the Clearwater Marine Hospital over Christmas this year so I have even more to share!  I am such a baby though.  I told the kiddos that this book gets me a tad emotional and I did cry when I met Winter in Florida.  It is truly an amazing story about survival and hope.  My plan is that we will finish the book before spring break.  I would like to show some of the documentary I picked up while I was down there.  I also have a few other fun things to show them that I just had to buy!
Our class is very close to a compliment party so I am planning to show the movie to them the two days we come before spring break.  I will need to send home a permission slip next week since the movie is PG.
If you and your student are already familiar with the story, please feel free to visit their website seewinter.com.  There are a lot of awesome resources including a live webcam of Winter and the other animals.  We have not made it to the end of the book yet so I do not want to spoil it for any of the kids.  We will visit the website as soon as we finish reading!

    

Read Across America Week

This has to be one of my favorite weeks of school!  A whole week devoted to all the amazing things literature gives us.  Not to mention the silly books of Dr. Seuss. Today we wrapped it up by dressing as our favorite book characters.  Check out these cuties!