Plant Diagrams

The students created flower diagrams to show the parts of a plant and their functions. Their flowers were added to our hallway garden display.

Plant Parts and Their Functions

During our study of plants, Ms. Willemin taught the students about the parts of plants and their functions using a Brace Map. The students then worked in small groups to determine what part of a plant various vegetables belonged to.

Text Evidence

In reading the students are learning to use text evidence to support their answers to questions. Ms. Willemin read Butterfly Cafe with the students from ReadingA-Z. The students then answered various comprehension questions related to the story. They had to find the answers in their books adn document where they found their answers.

Plant Study

To access prior knowledge, Ms. Willemin asked the students to share what they knew about plants. The information was put on a class Circle Map using the Promethean Board. The students then went on a nature walk around the school to examine various plants. Each student collected at least one leaf. In class the students created a leaf rubbing to show the different features of their leaves.

Author's Purpose Posters and Foldables

In reading we spent a large amount of time analyzing author's purpose. The students explored various forms of media including websites, newspapers, magazines, and product labels to determine their purpose. The students then worked in small groups to create posters to document each purpose. Then independently they created a foldable to draw at least one example of the purpose of each media.

Pattern Block Fractions

Ms. Willemin taught the students a lesson on fractions using pattern blocks. The students started with a hexagon. They then had to find which two pieces could cover the entire hexagon - two trapezoids. They then had to find three shapes that would cover those shapes - three diamonds. They then had to cover the shape with six triangles. The lesson was to reinforce that fractions are equal and that a whole can be divided into smaller parts.

OMNI Field Trip

In March we visited The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to view the film The Living Sea at their OMNI Theater. The film summarized and showcased many of the ocean animals we researched in Reading, the bodies of water and landforms we studied in Social Studies, and the pull of the moon we studied in Science.

Assembly Line

In Social Studies the students learned about working together as a team to accomplish a job. They learned how certain jobs are specialized to do a certain job or task. That certain job or task is then joined with someone else's specialized job to complete a whole. They learned about the concept of an assembly line. They then worked in small groups, an assembly line fashion, to create bracelets out of yarn and cereal. Each student had a specialized task including measuring the yarn, cutting the yarn, stringing the cereal, and tying the bracelet. When some of the groups did not complete the tasks and not each group member received a bracelet, we had a brief character education lesson related to our Social Contract. We discussed that when we don't all follow the rules or do our jobs it can affect other people doing their jobs.

Food Fractions

Ms. Willemin taught the students a lesson on fractions, or parts of a set, using food items. The students broke cookies in half (circle fractions), cut a piece of bread into quarters (square fractions), a graham cracker into fourths (rectangle fractions), and animal crackers (irregular shaped fractions) to learn that fractions must be equal parts.

Addition Connect Four

Fellow teachers, I just uploaded a new product to my TpT Store: Addition Connect Four. This engaging game allows students to practice math additon facts to sums of 12 or sums of 18. Students work in pairs to roll dice and adding their sums. They cover the corresponding number sentence on the board with a two color counter. The first student to get four number sentences covered in a row wins the game. Addition Connect Four would be a great addition to your math centers to build math fact fluency.

Beluga Whale Research

After learning about the two types of whales, baleen and toothed, the students focused more specifically on researching Beluga Whales. Ms. Willemin, our student teacher, facilitated the students in researching what Belugas look like, what they eat, where they live, and other interesting facts. As they learned new facts, they recorded it to a Circle Map. They then used the Circle Map to write a shared writing research paper. In shared writing, every child gets an opportunity to write and the students help one another with spelling and sentence structure.

Ocean Zones Foldable

Ms. Willemin, our student teacher, taught the students about the various ocean zones. To help the students further understand the different depths of the ocean, they created a four tiered foldable to show the different ocean zones. They colored each part a darker shade of blue to show that the farther away from the sun, the darker it gets. They then read about the different zones and the animals that live in each zone.

Kelp Forest

The students learned about the Kelp Forest during our ocean unit. They learned about the parts of the ocean plant and made comparisons to the parts of land plants. They also learned about how animals and humans depend upon the Kelp plant. The students created Tree Maps and diagrams to show their learning.