Heroes and Penguins

Heroes.  Who are they?  Why are they important?  We had a great week of learning about, and discussing people we admire.  We learned about Martin Luther King Jr., as well as other famous people.  We also talked about how heroes don't have to be famous!

We read books about heroes.

We then made a class book with the papers you sent from home.  I loved reading about the special people that my students admire.  :)

 We made a bubble map of words that describe heroes.

We dressed up like heroes- it was adorable!!!

In other news....

Wowzers, we sure have been working hard on math combinations to 10!!!!  Like I stated in my e-mail, most of the math activities we do are hands-on.  The following activity is one example.  Each child had a "pond" and "ducks."  The children were given a number and then had to manipulate that number of ducks (putting some in the water, putting some on land) and then they had to write a number sentence describing their pond.  It was an engaging activity that was enjoyed by all! :)

Penguins, penguins and MORE penguins!!! 
Our penguin unit was super fun and a lot of learning took place!  We used the topic of penguins to make a lot of non-narrative connections!  I was surprised how much background knowledge they already had!  Although, when they learned that the mommy penguins regurgitate food for their baby they were slightly grossed out. ;) We made our own rookery in our classroom!

Here are the mommy penguins getting ready to lay their eggs! (Apparently there is a lot of sun in the Arctic!)

 Here are the daddy penguins getting ready to receive the egg from the mommy.  

Transfer completed successfully!  The eggs are safely on daddy's feet!

 Now, the mommy penguins are headed to the ocean to find food!

Lastly, had to share this spectacular build!

Until next time! :)

A New Year!

Happy 2015! We have now entered the magical time of the year.  It is a time like no other- a time of exponential and unexplainable growth.  This occurs every year between January and May, and never ceases to amaze me.  The kids come to school, armed with the knowledge from the first semester of learning, and they start to explode with reading, comprehension, and mathematics.  It is, by far, my favorite time of the year.

With the chaos of the end of the quarter my picture taking was lacking, but the following photos demonstrate how we are beginning to learn about subtraction.  I feel that it is best to make learning, especially mathematics, as hands-on as possible.  In the following pictures the children were given a certain number of bears.  Then, some of their bears left to go into their den to hibernate for the winter.  Then we talked about how many were left.  It was a great introduction to subtraction and the kiddos really had fun. :)

Winter Party!!

Again, thanks to all of the parents that made this so wonderful for the children!  It was a great afternoon! 

 When KWQC came in for "Hello Quad Cities," it was so exciting!  :)

Lastly, welcome, welcome, welcome to this little guy!  A new smiley face in our classroom!  We are glad to have him! :)

Until next time,