The Foundation

We had enough jugs yesterday to lay the first row for the igloo. This was absolutely exciting for the students. We talked about how big we would like the inside to be. I also discussed with the class that the size of the floor would determine how big the igloo would end up being. We got a little carried away and used the maximum amount of space that the floor in our reading nook would allow. 

  
Mrs. Langston was a little overwhelmed at just HOW BIG this igloo is going to be! I really wanted enough space for 4-5 students to enjoy the igloo at one time. So, it looks like we will have enough space to fulfill this goal! We are still trying to decide how big the entrance should be...

It took 27 jugs to make the first row. So, we had enough jugs to complete a second row today. We have used 54 total milk jugs and it looks like we will be using MANY more! GREAT math lessons going on here!

So with all this said.....we need milk jugs and I apologize now if your children are hounding you daily with "Do we have a milk jug I can take to school today?" or " When will the milk jug be empty?" 

Happy collecting!!

The Igloo Project

 We have a good start on our "Milk Jug" Igloo collection. The students are getting very excited about building the igloo. We should have enough jugs to lay the foundation in a week. Next week is the 100th day of school- so we are going to try to begin the next week!

We are placing them in rows of 5 as we tally them on our chart. Now, I know we are going to begin to run out of room for the collection in the near future. Hopefully once we begin building in stages we will clear out some more room for the jugs coming in.

Perfect Timing... Almost!

We have been working on a "Snowman" unit along with our Reading and Math Skills and the snow was a perfect addition- well almost...until the parking lot disappeared in less than an hour! These were taken around 1:00 yesterday...

Front Circle:

 Gym Parking Lot:

 Bagley Road:

 Now, back to the work...

 "Snowy Day and Night" visualization: I read two different poems as the students expressed what they were visualizing on the paper with chalk. They did a great job!

Snowman Measurement: We worked with non-standard units of measurement and measured the parts of a snowman with snap cubes. The students also got to see how many "snowmen" tall they were. We then took the data and found out that our class would be 66 (and some more) snowmen tall. So much fun!!!

 How to Build a Snowman: The students got to draw their own snow man, write a story about how to build a snowman using "first, next, last, and then" writing skills and then measured their snowman drawing with cubes. 

After all this I sure hope they got to go home and build a snowman yesterday! If you have any pictures of these snowmen...e-mail them to me and I will show them to the class. 
 

Playing Catch Up!!

Wow! I would like to say I am rewinding all the way back to Christmas, but I was so busy with our activities that I forgot to snap some pictures.

 So, I am going to begin with the Dairy Farm Visit we had right before the break. The Alabama Dairy Farmer’s Mobile Classroom came to visit the whole school.  This was a very interesting opportunity for the students to learn how we get milk from the cows on the farm to the kitchen table in our homes. I have to say I was educated in this process as well!

Do you see the milk below in the glass container?

Fire Safety Week...

Every year the Bagley Fire Department comes to the school to talk to the Kindergarten and First Graders about fire safety. They also like to come so the students are familiar with them in case they ever have to respond to a fire at their house.

I think it is great that they volunteer their time to come and talk to our students about Fire Safety. It always reminds me to be thankful that these firefighters are willing to put their life on the line to keep up safe in the case of fire or emergencies.

The students learned about how the truck and firemen manage the water that comes in and out of the firetruck. The students were given the opportunity to see just how heavy the end piece of the hose is that the firemen carry. They even received a complete tour of all the tools and gadgets on the truck. It as a great visit as always!

I LOVE Surprises!

It was a normal day of checking my mail box in the office as the students went to PE. I had this interesting brown package that felt like a book sitting there in my box. My name and school address were hand written too! I rushed back to my classroom and could barely make it to my table to open the package.

To my surprise it was a a signed book from an AUTHOR himself! He had randomly selected a few classrooms across the country and my classroom had been chosen! I am sure most of you aren't aware of this, but I NEVER win random drawings. It's just a bad luck thing I have going on. So, hopefully my luck is changing.

Anyways, I am a leery person and quickly googled this author. I found out that he is a true author and has a great platform and passion for helping our nation's students become healthy and active. He is an author, speaker, and fitness expert. He has been featured on national TV and has written articles for many magazines including Fitness, Woman's Day, etc.

 

 

 

Here is the note he included for our class.
 
The class was SO excited about this. They loved the book too!
 
(Click picture for a larger image.)

 

So, I have planned for the class to write letters to the author in response to him sending us a copy of his book.

 

http://www.steveettinger.com/

 

Mystery Boxes

What have we been doing lately? Well, a WHOLE LOT! So much that this is the first opportunity I have had to update the blog. So, I thought I would share a little about our latest math station we have worked on that the students love *by the way!

Mystery Boxes:

The object of this activity is to bring about an awareness of organizing objects into groups and counting them. These organizational strategies help the students to count the items in the box. This also works on their counting and addition skills. We have talked a lot about having organizational strategies when counting objects to 20. Like making rows or groups. Also, double checking our answers!

Example 1:
This student decided to group by colors and count the groups "all together" to get a total. I seriously would have grouped cars and frogs if it had been me. This one really thought "outside" the box! I love it!

 

 



Example 2:
This treasure chest of dishes and flatware has been a big hit! The possibilities are endless. 16 can be "4 groups of 4"

 

Example 3:
These buttons are great because they can sort by size, color, and sets. This student forgot the total amount on the paper, but counted 15. This one allows them to see that 15 can be "3 groups of 5".

 

Mystery Boxes is an easy activity you can do at home for practice with your child on counting, grouping, adding, and organizing strategies.