Natural Resources

Our next Science Unit was on Natural Resources.  We learned about rocks, soil, water, and air.

Rocks were one of our favorites.

We sorted rocks by their different characteristics.

Some of us sorted by size, some by color, some by texture.

We learned that these rocks are called "river rocks." 

They were dusty and got our hands dirty.

But we didn't mind. :)

Next we went out and searched for a pet rock.

It was tough to find the perfect pet.

Take a look at these rocks!

They'll make great pets.

Here are a few of our pet rocks.

Zack's rock is named Jono and he likes to watch TV.

Grace's rock is named Cristl and she likes to play.

Isaac's rock is named Max and he likes to rock and roll.

Layla's rock is named Robin and she likes to talk.

Here are all our rocks hanging out on Mrs. Glass' desk!

Next up was soil.  We observed three different types of soil.

We looked at topsoil, clay soil, and sandy soil.

We did an experiment to see which of the 3 soils held the most water.

Clay soil definitely holds the most water!  Next was sandy soil and then topsoil.

We mixed the 3 soils together and then used them to make sand drawings!

To end our unit on rocks and soil, we made a tasty treat.

We used chocolate pudding for the clay soil and crushed oreos for the topsoil.

And then we added gummy worms to enrich our soil.

Once it was all made up,

we dug in!

Dirt sure is tasty. :)

Even the worms tasted great.

What's New?

When we finished up learning about capital letters, we moved on to punctuation.  We learned about telling, asking, and exciting sentences.  On Friday, we used what we'd learned and made a Punctuation Mobile! We had to write one of each kind of sentence and then attached it to our mobile.

In Math, we're still working on patterns.

To mix it up, we put the snap cubes away and made patterns with M&M's!

Some Fun We've Been Having...

We finished out our Senses unit with a little snack.

We used our 5 senses to describe popcorn!

After describing how the popcorn sounded, smelled, felt and what it looked like...we got to eat it! :)

In Social Studies, we've been talking about citizenship.

Part of being a good citizen is voting.

We voted on which teacher we would like to come and read us a story.

Coach Myers won by a landslide!

We learned a couple weeks ago about when we use capital letters.  To help us hold our learning in, we wore "Caps" for "Capitals"!

We used receipt tape and wrote our numbers in order.

We colored Gus the Hungry Monster and labeled all his food with short u words.

We made frogs from paper plates and labeled them with short o words.

In Math, we've been working on finding out if numbers are even or odd.  We searched through magazines and found even and odd pictures.

We've also been working on numbers that are greater and less than another number.  We learned about the hungry alligator that only wants to eat the biggest numbers.  We used pipe cleaners to make our alligator mouths.

Welcome to a New Year!!

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year! We've already been busy at work over the past 2 weeks.

In Science, we experimented with different scientific tools.

We compared temperatures between hot and cold water using thermometers.

We used measuring cups to compare capacity.

We measured the length of different objects using rulers.

And we used hand lenses to observe items up close.

In math, we've been working on counting and number sense.  In this game, we roll the dice and color the matching number square.

We used playing cards to compare numbers and decide which one was greater.

We made patterns with snap cubes.

We had a special visitor come and read us his favorite story.  Mr. Wallace was the principal when Mrs. Glass was in school.

Last Friday, we went on a letter hunt.  We split into 3 groups and had to find the alphabet, which was hidden all over our room.  When we found all the letters, we had to put them in ABC order.

We can't wait for all the new learning we'll be doing this year!!

Chinese New Year

Last week we discussed the Chinese New Year.  We learned that they have parades at night.  They make dragon masks and carry lanterns. We made our own dragon posters.

We also tasted some traditional food. Here we are right before we taste our Edamame!