St. Patrick's Day

   We watched Holiday Facts and Fun: St. Patrick's Day and we read It's St. Patricks' Day. Then students illustrated a symbol for St. Patrick's Day. We grouped our symbols on our circle map and used shared writing to stretch out and label our symbols. On the frame of our circle map, we wrote where we learned about St. Patrick's Day.

    We wrote to explain why we wear green on St. Patrick's Day. I love how almost every child drew themselves as leprechauns.

    We read Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato and discussed story elements (characters, setting, and key events from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then students illustrated a part of our story map, and then they cut their pictures out. We put our story map together.

    We read and acted out 5 Little Shamrocks. Then students created and recorded their own shamrock subtraction stories.

    Mrs. Reed and I made leprechaun punch for the students while Mrs. Loftus read What Leprechauns Do. Then students enjoyed their leprechaun punch.

Here's our schema chart for St. Patrick's Day.

Here's my little leprechauns!

Subtraction Fun

   We started off our subtraction week by reading Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow. We stopped to discuss how many monkeys went away and how many were left after the crocodile came each time. Then we sang Dr. Jean's Five Little Monkeys song. I passed out monkeys and an alligator necklaces, and the students acted out the song as we sang. Then we recorded the subtraction sentence as the whiteboard. 

    We read The Smushy Bus and talked about how many students were added and taken away. Then I taught the students a little rhyme I made up about students on a school bus. Then we chanted our rhyme and acted out subtraction stories. Then students created their own after a mini directed art lesson.

    We read Toy Box Subtraction and worked the subtraction stories as we read aloud. Then we used a treasure box and cars to tell and record our own subtraction stories whole group. Then students went to their tables and worked together to tell subtraction stories using their treasure boxes with cars. Then students created and recorded their own subtraction stories.

We also played a Chow Time! subtraction game partner game I found from The Mailbox magazine. We will add this game to a math station.

Part Part Whole Addition & Subtraction

    We started by reviewing addition and subtraction by telling stories for the students to act out. Then we used the part part whole mat I taped off on the floor. We told addition stories by putting girls in one box and boys in the other and then joining them into one group. Then we identified the parts. 

   

    We used chocolate graham crackers to tell addition stories. We focused on identifying the parts and then bringing them together and identifying the whole. Then students practiced independently by rolling dice for the parts and combing the whole. 

    We also modeled subtraction problems and worked on identifying the whole and then breaking it into parts. After practicing by telling and working subtraction problems together, students worked with their partner to roll a dice to find the whole. Then they took turns pulling some down into one of the "part" boxes. Then they identified the parts.

Winter Addition and Subtraction

We started our addition and subtraction unit by reading Christmas Angel from Clifford's Puppy Days series. Then I passed around a bag of Christmas decoration and each student took one. Then I told addition and subtraction stories about decorating a Christmas tree. We worked on making two sets and then joining them together or making a whole and separating them.

 Here's a peek at our math journal!

 We read Happy Holidays by Deanna Jump and then used a Gingerbread house mat and gumdrops and peppermints to model addition and subtraction stories. I recorded the number sentences on the white board as we told our stories. I modeled telling the stories and then choose different students to give a story to model and they had to tell me if it was joining (addition) or separating (subtraction).

We also used a Snowman mat and buttons to model addition and subtraction stories. Students did more of the story telling that day and took turns modeling on the elmo the stories as worked them together.

Oceans of Fun!

We reviewed animal characteristics and created a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast Great White Sharks with Orca Whales. Then students created their own.

We acted out Hungry Shark and practiced subtraction stories. Then we played a game with goldfish crackers where we spun the fish spinner to determine the number of goldfish we need and then spun the shark spinner to determine how many fish were eaten. Then we wrote the subtraction sentences.

We read In The Deep Blue Sea by Deanna Jump. We created a tree map of adjectives, nouns, and verbs from the story. Then students responded through writing by using the pattern from the story.

Dino-Mite Learning

We used dinosaurs to review concepts we learned this year. In science, we reviewed characteristics of reptiles and discussed how dinosaurs are like a system. We discussed the purpose of their parts. We also reviewed life cycles and compared and contrasted herbivores with carnivores. Two science vocab words that have been the science word of the week recently.

In math, we told addition and subtraction stories using dino fruit snacks. We created dino positional patterns. We read How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and then discussed bedtime routines and acted two out a time and used comparative language to describe the length of time each activity took. We also drew our favorite dinosaur and used different manipulatives to find the length and area of our dinosaurs. Then we compared with our partner. We also made dinosaur glyphs to answer the following questions: Do you like carnivores or herbivores best? Did you like the book Dinosaur Roar! or Dinosaurumpus best? Do you think dinosaurs are creepy or cool? We graphed the answers for the class all together. Then students went to their seats and graphed the answers for their table.

In social studies, we learned about the job of paleontologists. We watched two different Discovery Streaming videos about their job. We also excavated chocolate chips from cookies. We created a concept anchor chart to show what we knew and what we learned.

In language arts, our focus poem was about dinosaurs. We clapped to the rhythm of the poem. We looked for rhyming words, word family words, helpful chunks, and word wall words. We acted out our poem. We did dinosaur word wall words where we stomped like dinos as we chanted the letters and then roared the words.