Thursday, March 20, 2014

Field trip and class happenings

March has been so busy at school! We recently finished up our unit on community helpers. The students not only learned about jobs in our community, but they also learned to distinguish needs from wants and jobs that provide goods or services. We went on a field trip 2 weeks ago to a few places in our community. We went to the Tega Cay Fire Department, Tega Cay City Hall, Baker's Buzzin and Town Tavern!




A police officer showed us his car at City Hall!

We like to teach the children through STEM activities. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We had a few parents visit today to talk about how their job uses STEM. The kids really enjoyed learning about various jobs.
Mr. Wiand works for Microsoft. He showed us why technology
is important to everyone!
Some of the Microsoft devices that Mr. Wiand uses.

Mr. Pelfrey is a structural engineer. He showed us why it's important
to make buildings strong. He simulated an earthquake and what happens
when a building doesn't have a lot of  support. The kids were able to
come up and add support beams and little by little, the building was
stronger! Mr. Pelfrey showed how he uses all aspects of STEM in his job!























In math, we just finished learning about place value through the number 19. We have now covered number sense, addition, subtraction and place value. We will spend the next week reviewing everything before report cards come home! Our next unit of study in math is geometry. We will learn about 2D and 3D shapes.

Students are working in groups of 4-5 on place value.





In writing, we finished up our How To books. Now, we are working on informational writing. We are working on this by making informational books. Check out some of the samples below. I was only going to post a few samples, but they all did such a good job that I had to include them all!!
Owen is writing about soccer.
He wrote "You kick the ball into the goal to score a point."

Kennan is writing about pirates.
He wrote "Pirates live on a boat."


Jack is writing about sharks.
He wrote "But there is another kind of shark.
It is called the whale shark and it eats plankton."

Savannah is writing about lipstick.
She wrote "You can only wear lipstick
when you go to somewhere fancy."


Landen is writing about dogs.
He wrote "Dogs need to go on a bike ride."

Madeline is writing about pumpkins.
She wrote "Pumpkins have to be planted
or they won't grow."

Lucy is writing about mermaids.
She wrote "Did you know that mermaids have tails?"
Spencer is writing about horses.
She wrote "Horses go in the barn when
it rains."
Peter is writing about frogs.
He wrote "Some frogs may look pretty but this
is a frog that is poisonous."
Selah is writing about snowmen.
She wrote "In summer the snowmen melt"
I love the happy sun and sad snowman!!
Mila is writing about cats.
She wrote "To take care of a cat you have
to feed a cat."

Dezmond is writing about pumpkins.
He wrote "Pumpkins stay on pads."
After further questioning, he is referring to the black rows
that you walk on at the pumpkin patch.


Connor is writing about dolphins.
She wrote "Dolfins have one tail."

Alayna is writing about snakes.
She wrote "Some snakes live in the trees"
Brady is writing about football.
He wrote "To play football you do the kickoff."
Ellie is writing about pigs.
She wrote "Pigs love to play in the mud."
Gia is writing about dogs.
She wrote "Dogs need water."

Caden  took it a step further and created
a table of contents!! (His picture is at the
bottom. I couldn't get them to fit together.)
Lukas is writing about cats.
He wrote "Cats don't like water because
it is wet. Cats don't like wet stuff!
Julie is writing about pumpkins.
She wrote "Some pumpkins live on vines."
Cooper is writing about sharks.
He wrote "When sharks are hungry
they eat fish."
Joseph is writing about pirates.
He wrote "A captain is the leader
of the pirates."


Anthony is writing about police officers.
He wrote "Police officers help you from danger."

Ryan is writing about basketball.
He wrote "When you put a ball in the
hoop you get a point."

Caden is writing about killer whales.
He wrote "Did you know killer whales are the
biggest animal in the world?"

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Thanks!

Thank you so much for all of the donations that came in today! We are so fortunate to have so many things donated to our classroom.

Also, take a look at our future architects!!


Monday, March 10, 2014

Welcome Back!

I apologize that this hasn't been updated in so long. I meant to write while I was out on maternity leave but as you can see, that didn't happen! I really enjoyed my weeks with Alex, but it's good to be back. I really missed being in the classroom! Here are some pictures of Alex. He is almost 3 months old already. Time is flying!!







So now that I am back at school I will try to post more often. Our current theme is community helpers. We are learning about various jobs in our community and if they provide a good or a service! Thursday, we will take a field trip around Tega Cay to learn more! In math, we are learning about decomposing teen numbers. The students are learning to look at a tens frame and determine the number by knowing how many tens and ones there are. In writing, we are starting informational writing. We will use what we know to make informational books!

After school today, I will be placing our duck eggs in the incubator! Duck eggs usually take 28 days to hatch. Hopefully we will have several mallard ducklings in April. This is such an exciting part of the year!