Group work this week…

Monday
Literacy – Word Study – Making Bread – Together, we read the words in an emergent reader about Baking Bread. Using photos, context clues, and decodable sounds, we figured out the tricky words that we couldn’t sound out.
Math – Pizzeria Math – Working with a partner, one student was the customer and the other was the pizza maker.  The customer had to order a pizza with 2 toppings that added to 10 items.  For example, “4 peppers and 6 basil, please”  The pizza maker had to make the pizza exactly right or else the  customer would send it back to the kitchen!
Play Practice

Tuesday
Kitchen Science– Making “Kitty Rolls” – We first made a “sweet soup” for the yeast to gobble up and grow, then we created a dough, let it rise, each student formed their own little rolls, let it rise again, cooked it up and ate it!
Science – Video – Bread Comes to Life – We learned about how bread is made from wheat grain made into flour and mixed with yeast.

Wednesday
Literacy – Guided Reading – I read one on one with students while the rest of our group used literacy apps on the iPads.
Math – Pizzeria Math – We continued playing our pizzeria math game
Play Practice

Thursday
Play Practice – I worked with partners to practice lines and catching balls
Math – The Perfect Pizza Pie Chart – Mrs. Swanson helped students to first create a bar graph of everyone’s favorite type of pizza.  They then turned that bar graph into a pie chart by everyone creating a slice of their favorite pizza and putting them all together to make the perfect pizza!
Preparations for Grandparents Day – We talked about what it will be like to have all of our guests coming the next day 🙂

Friday
Grandparents and Special Friends Day!
BINGO & Planting Zinnias

Video of Performance

My apologies that I could only get one side and can’t see everyone!  Videos are available from the school with a better view.

Please send me any photos you have if I missed anybody!

Monday
Math – Plus or Minus Game – Using special dice with positive and negative numbers, students started with 10 unifix cubes and then added or subtracted depending on what they rolled.
Art – Vincent’s Yellow – We looked at the painting of Vincent Van Gogh and observed how much he liked to use the color yellow, especially golden yellow wheat fields.
StoryTelling – Tale of Two Brothers –  Using the felt board, I retold an old story from the Middle East about 2 brothers who are given wheat farms by their father.  One brother marries and has 6 children and the other brother chooses to live alone.  After they harvest all of their wheat, the brothers lay awake at night worrying about each other.  This tale has a twist…ask your child to retell you the story!

Tuesday
Math – Monster Number Game – Using a large number line, one student thought of a number and the other students guessed what the number was.  The student responded if the number was higher or lower by moving the monsters at the end of the number line in closer.  Students need to guess the correct number before the monster narrows in on the number.
Art – Happy Portraits –  Inspired by the portraits of Vincent Van Gogh, student created self-portraits using oil pastels.  Students used colors and patterns that expressed happiness.
Play Practice

Wednesday
Literacy – Guided reading with book bags – I listened to students read books to me from their book bags while the rest of our group used literacy apps on the iPads.

Math Story – One Grain of Rice – Students heard the mathematical folktale from India, illustrated by the amazing Demi.  A clever village girl uses her math skills to outsmart a selfish raja.
Play Practice

Thursday

Writing – Happy Portraits – What makes me happy words – Students uses encoding skills to write words or sentences to describe what makes them happy.  These words were added to their self-portraits.

Math – Skippity – Skippity is a super-fun-rainbow-version of checkers.  Great game.

Friday
NO School

This week we came to appreciate how much work a combine tractor does.  We harvested wheat and turned it into flour the old fashioned way, by hand.  A lot of work for a small amount of flour!

Quest Academy had Immersion Day on Wednesday…each class participates in a service learning project.  This year, Mrs. Swanson made Kindness Rocks with the Lemurs.  Next week we will go for a walk and leave our rocks out for someone to discover, hopefully brightening their day 🙂

Small Group work this week…

Monday
Science – Threshing and winnowing wheat by hand
Math – Rainbow 10s – All ways to make 10
Game – Harvest Time

Tuesday
Science – Grinding wheat into flour
Math – Rainbow Dice
Play Practice – Lining up and backstage

Wednesday
Literacy – Guided Reading with Book Bags
Science – Making Play-doh with our flour
Service Learning Project – Kindness Rocks

Thursday
Play Practice – Act 2
Continue Kindness Rocks
Problem Solving – What to do when someone takes your spot in line?

Friday
Math – White Board Numbers/Number Sentences
Play Practice – Act 2

We used the flour that we made from wheat (supplemented by some flour from the supermarket ) to make a fresh batch of play-doh.

We colored the play-doh red, yellow and blue…then mix them together to make orange, green, and purple.

1. Thresh the wheat

We used blocks as a “flail” to smash the wheat apart

2. Winnow the wheat –

We used a fan to separate the grain from the chaff.  The grain is heavier so it drops, but the chaff is light so it blows away.

3. Grind the wheat

We used bricks to crack the grains open and grind into flour

Students returned from Spring Break to a transformed room…now a farm with a combine tractor and farm stand!   We also have our stage set up in the community room.  This week we dove into preparations for our upcoming play.  Every year the Lemur Class builds a giant Rube Goldberg machine that is set off as the grand finale for our show.  It takes 1 month for us to build the machine.  Beginning this week, during Center time, I bring 2 students at a time to the community room to work on building the machine.  Every year I am surprised and impressed with the ideas, creativity, and teamwork that I see.  This year is no exception, our machine is already shaping up to be a great one!

Monday
No School

Tuesday
New Unit: Intro to combine tractors and harvesting wheat
Math – April Calendar
Play Prep: Letters for Set

Wednesday
Literacy – Guided Reading with Book Bags
Math – Farm Stand, Shopping with $1 bills
Play Prep: Stage Viewing and machine videos

Thursday
Play Prep: Flag Painting
Math: Farm Stand Shopping with $10 bills
Play Prep: Machine Videos/brainstorming

Friday
Play Prep: Flag Painting
Math: Farm stand, shopping with $5 bills