Chicken Life Cycle

In science the students have been learning about and comparing various animal life cycles. One of the animals they have learned about is the chicken. Using an egg template, the students drew the life cycle of a chicken. For those who finished early, they colored the large chicken drawing to display with their life cycle models.

Frog Life Cycle

We have been observing the changes in tadpoles over the last several weeks in our science lab. Unfortunately they were not doing well in their environment so they had to be released into the neighboring pond before we got to see them develop into adult frogs. But, at least they did get to see the beginning stages. As a part of our lessons on life cycles, the students learned that frogs lay eggs, the eggs become tadpoles, the tadpoles become emergent frogs, and the emergent frogs become adult frogs. They created these life cycle models to demonstrate their understanding.

Marshmallow and Pretzel Shapes

The students used marshmallows and pretzels to model 2D and 3D shapes. As they built the various shapes, we talked about the similarities and differences between them. We talked about how many edges and vertices each had. We discussed what shapes rolled, stacked, and could slide.

Place Value Comparisons

The students were each given four number cards to model in a drawing as tens and ones on a foldable. They then wrote comparison sentences to determine which number was the greatest and which was the least.

 



Modeling Larger Numbers

In math we are working on modeling, ordering, and comparing numbers to 99. In this lesson the students worked in partners to build larger numbers with Base Ten Blocks. They then checked on another's work. After both partners agreed the models were correct, they represented their numbers on paper by drawing sticks (tens) and dots (ones). They then identified in writing the number of tens and ones, the expanded form, the standard form, and the written form of the numbers. They then again worked with their partners to check the work.  After checking, they discussed which number was the greatest and which was the least. They had to justify their thinking by explaining how many tens and ones were in their numbers. The partners then switched numbers with another set of partners and repeated the process.

Toothpick and Marshmallow Shapes

This post is an updated version of something I wrote earlier in the week. I must have been tired when I wrote it because I indicated that we used pretzels instead of toothpicks for our shape lesson - although that would have been a great idea as well! I'll have to remember it for next year. Although it was a minor detail, I thought I'd update:

To help the students recognize the number of vertices and sides each two-dimensional shape has, they created models of the shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows. The toothpicks help them visualize the sides and the marshmallows visualize the vertices. In case you wonder why the marshmallows look so strange, it is because the melted...but it was still fun!

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