Friday, December 20, 2013

Winter Party



Question- Is there anything better than wearing your pajamas to school?!
Answer- Yes! Getting to wear jammies, getting presents, and watching a wonderful movie! We watched Homeward Bound and I bawled like a baby sniffed a few lady like tears.


For my holiday gifts I made little baggies filled with:

  • hot chocolate mix
  • mini marshmallows (am I the only one who wants to spell it marshmEllows?)
  • one crazy straw
  • one finger puppet
I got lots of gift cards, ornaments, and cookies! I was so touched by the thoughtfulness of my students. I got 3 boxes of double stuffed Oreos, which I find hilarious because the reason they know I love them is because I said I cannot be balanced with Oreos because I adore them. Ms. Dower will come back from the break looking a lot rounder than before!

The best present was seeing how adorable my kiddos looked with their joyful faces and warm PJs.

The teacher inside me will not quit... which is why I just had to have a pajama graph based on the different designs on their little PJs. 






Gorgeous "flowers" and gift cards!! 









Thursday, December 19, 2013

Fractions

We are done with patterns and we're moving on to Fractions.

I love introducing a new concept with a book. There are 1,000 books about Fractions but I limited myself to just the best.
 
 
  


cool-Lego-bricks-maths-fractions
I really want to use Legos this year to teach fractions. I love using games to teach math!

The TEKS for second grade are:
  • 2.2A Use concrete models to represent and name fractional parts of a whole object (with denominators of 12 or less)
  • 2.3A Partition objects into equal parts and name the parts, including halves, fourths, and eighths, using words
  • 2.3 B Explain that the more fractional parts used to make a whole, the smaller the part; and the fewer the fractional parts, the larger
  • RT.2.3C Use concrete models to count fractional
  • parts beyond one whole using words and recognize how many parts it takes to equal one whole
  • 2.3C Use concrete models to count fractional parts beyond one whole using words and recognize how many parts it takes to equal one whole
  • 2.3D Identify examples and non-examples of halves, fourths, and eighths

This is a fun activity that I got for FREE from TpT.
Fraction Avenue

Of course,  youtube is always a good resource for short videos...

Fruit Fractions

Fraction Song

What is a fraction?

The Doorbell Rang story 

Fraction Animals

Great visual for parts of a whole, also for free from TpT.

Some different resources available for fractions are:
http://www.primarygames.com/fractions/start.htmhttp://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/fractionflags/ffthirds.htmlhttp://alexandria-es10.lausd.k12.ca.us/Staff_Pages/Henry_Anker/Mr_Anker_Tests_New/Math/Fractions/Fractions_Set_02.swfhttp://alexandria-es10.lausd.k12.ca.us/Staff_Pages/Henry_Anker/Mr_Anker_Tests_New/Math/Fractions/Fractions_Set_04.swfhttp://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/fractionflags/fractionflags.html




Poetry

There is so much to teach in poetry.
We are making a list of all the things we are noticing in our poetry as we read it.

Here are the terms I've taught them:
Alliteration
Acrostic
Haiku
Rhyme
Rhythm
Poet
Poetry
Simile
Synonym
Nonsense poem
Onomatopoeia
Personification

My best friend came to read the Dr. Suess book, My Many Colored Days. It describes colors as feelings. It's a very short, easy-to-read book.


Then I had my kiddos get into groups and make posters to go along with the colors/feelings. Their posters had pictures, poems, and words. I thought they did an excellent job being creative!










We also made some poems for our principal the other day.....


She is very nice.
She is the boss of teachers.
Pretty and helpful.
-Whole class


Tap tap. Clickity clickity clack. Go Ms. Kim’s shoes.
Ms. Kim is the principal.
Best principal ever.
She talks to us and tries to remember our names.
Beautiful face and so young.
Her hair is nice and straight and long.
She looks like a butterfly.
Yellowish white.
-Aakash, Nehan, Sofia


Very pretty from head to toe.Nice to teachers.Takes care of our school.Keeps Spicewood SPICEY.She is cute as a kitten and a puppy.Ms. Kim is a helpful as a brain.-Lucy, Emilee, Leon

Subtraction


My students know... when we do subtraction, we THINK ADDITION!

There are many ways to do subtraction but these are the ways I've taught.

First there is counting up. This is when the "making ten" strategy comes into play.
So here we got 38 up to a friendly number 40 by adding 2, then we went from 40 to our original number by adding 23. Then we add those two numbers together. 2 plus 23 is 25. So I needed 25 to get from 38 to 63. 
25 is my answer.

Here is Leon demonstrating how to get from 29 to 56. First you add 1 to get to the friendly number 30, then you add another 26 to get to our original number. Then you add 1 and 26 together and get 27. I needed 27 to get from 29 to 56. 

This is the same problem as above. 63-38.
I started by drawing 6 ten rods and 3 ones. Then I couldn't take 8 away from 3 so I had to change from a ten rods to 10 ones. (I usually draw it over the line so the kids realize I'm not adding any numbers, just changing the format). Then I can cross out my 8 ones, and I cross out my 3 tens.
Then I count what is left. 2 ten rods and 5 ones.


We do NOT teach the "borrowing" way yet.
This is because it can interfere with understand the number sense and place value. Eventually when I do teach it, hopefully  absolutely they will understand it because we've drawn the ten rods and make it into 10 ones.

Thank you to Rachael's family for asking me about subtraction. I can't believe I hadn't put it on the blog yet. My apologies!

Wordles

All about light....


All about sound...


This was created automatically from my blog.

This is the one we made about second grade in my room.




Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Holidays

We got the official word that it is okay to display a Christmas tree as long as we have some other winter holiday decor displayed.
I chose to display a math Christmas tree, a menorah, and the Chinese Snake because it was the year of the snake.
Displaying photo.JPG


I got my cute little ornaments from Amy Lemons. Check out her awesome blog here. She is definitely one of my teaching mentors, and we've never met!
I took her freebie and edited it a bit to make some blank ones for the kids to make their own math problems.




Experiment









Some of the things we have learned about light are:
(this list was made by my kiddos raising their hands and calling out)
if there is no light, we cannot see color,
black is the absence of color,
light reflects and bounces,
light travels faster than sound,
shadow is caused by areas that light doesn't reach,
light is energy,
the biggest source of light for our planet is the sun, and the sun starts all our food chains.
light causes light energy and heat energy,
light travels in waves. 



Friday, December 13, 2013

Science

For those of you who love Magic School Bus as much as I do.... there's an episode about rainbows, color and light!


Yesterday we did a LIGHT science experiment.
There were three boxes. Each box had a different amount of light streaming in. Inside each box was an apple. The kiddos had to predict how well they would see that apple in each different box.
We talked about the steps of the scientific method- Prediction, Observation, and Conclusion.
We also talked about energy and light.





Dr. Dower came in and talked to us all about light, science, and engineering.
He demonstrated that light moves in straight lines, but not in water!
He put the water through a tub of water and we watched the light change directions.

We did predictions of what would happen when he poured water out with the light inside of it.

We also learned that light is SO light, that gravity hardly affects it!

The main ideas that we talked about:
Light and Sound both move in waves.
We need our brains to understand what we are hearing and seeing.
Change in the amount of light can affect how objects appear.
Changes in the amount of sound energy can cause objects to move or vibrate differently. 

Dr. Dower showing us the Eskimo shaking hands with his shadow.

Dr. Dower showing us the Indian head.

Laser inside the water.

Measuring the lasers. 


Displaying photo.JPG
Here is the light BENDING with the the water.

Displaying photo.JPG
Sofia and Leon helping Dr. Dower.

Displaying photo.JPG
Explaining all about light!