Moon craters

As part of our study of the moon, we completed two experiments about craters. The first experiment had students dropping different items onto the 'moon' (flour with a little cocoa on top). The craters were all so different!

The second experiment had students dropping golf balls from different heights and examining the craters created. This was a great opportunity to work in partnerships and practice being scientists.

Slumber Party

Remember our slumber party? It was such a great day. We did all the parts of our day lounging. A nice change for sure.

Doing math facts

playing a reading game on the ipad

Math Magicians

4th grade math magicians visited our classroom! These students choose to give up their recess time to learn amazing tricks using math! The students were so inspired!

What does reading time really look like in our classroom?

What does reading really look like in our classroom? Well, it is certainly a busy time and what's taking place in the room varies from day to day. Here are some images that capture an hour in our room during  one day of reading!

Ian works on work from spelling while Callan and Julia use the ipads to work on Lexia.

Julian and some other students are reading to themselves (and snacking!).

Here I am working with a reading group. They just read a non-fiction book about sharks and are creating a flip chart with facts about 3 different sharks. (I had some second graders take these pictures :)

And here is a group working on a paper mache project. They just finished reading a book about whales and are creating a 3D whale that will hang in our room with facts dangling from its belly!

First Aid with Deirdre

Once a month, Deirdre, our nurse visits our morning meeting. Her topics range from stopping the spread of germs, to lice, to first aid and more.  This time she introduced the kids to some stuffed turtles and a specific injury for each. The students brainstormed ideas of what to do for the turtle and then practiced on the doll. We practiced how to stay calm, not panic and think about what the best thing to do is when an accident happens!

 

This poor turtle got kicked in the shin during soccer at recess. Julian and his group bandage it.

This turtle got sand in her eyes. The students are putting some saline in.

This turtle has a bloody nose.

This group works together to bandage their turtle's arm.

Schema

We have been learning about schema in reading.  Schema is all the information you have in your brain. Readers use it to make connections and deepen their understanding of what they have read. We worked in groups to record the schema that kids had about fireflies. Then we read Fireflies! by Julie Brinkloe.

Schema is always growing and changing!

ipads

Many amazing apps have been loaded onto our school ipads and we have been using them! We use them for spelling word practice, reading fluency, sight word practice, listening and reading books. More in depth posts about each app to come.

We all signed a contract about how we will treat the ipads.