More December Happenings part 2

This was such a busy month.  We had lots of fun learning! We are becoming great mathematicians.  Here we are building numbers. Then we share how we built it.  5 can be all 5 on top, or 2 on top and 3 on the bottom of our ten frame. 

quick image - Build It!

 Here we are making penguins.  We added pattern scarves and then measured our penguins with cubes. 

 

pattern penguins

We loved learning what animals do to get ready for winter.  We created murals to show what animals hibernate, migrate, and adapt.

deciding where an animal goes

creating animals for our mural

discussing what animals were added to the chart.

Of course one of the most fun projects was creating a gift for our parents. Each one had its own personality!

More December Happenings!

After reading several versions of the Gingerbread Man, we tried a STEM challenge to create a boat that could carry a gingerbread man.  First students designed a boat. Then they build the boat and tested it out. We had a lot of fun create boats out of aluminum foil.  Several scientists were very successful. 

December Happenings!

This month has flown by with a lot of fun activities.  We have been reading several versions of The Gingerbread Man.  (including The Gingerbread Girl, Gingerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Cowboy!) We made a large gingerbread man in class and baked him in the cafeteria. 

 

He did run away, but we had a lot of fun tracking him down. 

He was not in the nurse's office

He left clues for us to find

Mr. Greer thought he saw him run by!

We then left the cookie for the teachers, faculty and staff to eat.  We are learning that is a lot of fun to do special things for
  others.

Telling stories through pictures

This first quarter we worked on telling our stories with pictures.  Part of our work included a close look at illustrations from the books we have read in class.  This included books by Lauren Castillo the Author/illustrator featured in this years Global Read Aloud.   The  "Bee class" also shared some of their favorite illustrations with us!

 

This gave us the idea to create our own illustration rubric.  We will add to this as the year goes on.  

our rubric

illustration

 Then we  shared our stories with our classmates. 

 

Apple exploration

We had a lot of fun exploring apples. Here young scientists take a closer look at what is inside an apple. 

recording what they see

Looking closely

Love the "lab coats and glasses"!

    

Our work with apples encouraged us to see what else might sink or float! 

We also enjoyed homemade applesauce! 

Apple Study

This week we used apples to help us explore many math and science SOLs.  Of course our favorite part was our trip to the apple orchard.  The apple donuts and cider were delicious. We were able to answer a lot of our wondering questions during "Apple School", but our favorite part was picking apples! Thank you to all the volunteers that came along on the trip with us!

Hay Ride

Looking for the apples

picking apples

apple smiles!

As scientists we took a close look inside the apple and recorded our findings. 

                            

 

Thank you Ms. Wymer for sharing Clementina's Cactus with us! The illustrations told the story beautifully!