100th Day, Hooray!

It's hard to believe that the 100th day of school was over 60 school days ago--and that we only have less than 20 days left! 

Either way, I still wanted to share with you the excitement we experienced on the 100th day of school!

The children were very engaged in creating a 100th day crown that truly challenged their mathematical thinking. We had pre-made the base and stapled 10 strips to the base. Each strip was a different color. For each strip, I gave the children a task. This really challenged their oral listening skills, too!

Austin is writing the numerals from 1-10 on the green strip.

Abby is writing her name 10 times on the light blue strip!

Here is a completed crown! 10 items on each one of the 10 strips means-- 100!

Audrey is sporting her 100th Day Crown!

Now, what would a special day be like in Mrs. Lochel's class without a snack to compliment it??  That would be unheard of!  So, we soon got to work on a 100 piece snack-- here are the options and a blank 100 grid.

Giovanna got started with 10 marshmellows and 10 M & M's.

Nathan continued on with Cheez-Its and Goldfish.



Kailyn added pretzels and chocolate covered raisins.

10 pieces of 10 different snack items means--100!

We ate a handful and packed the rest up to take home.  It sure was interesting to see just what a 100 piece snack looked like!  

Pumpkin Centers

Our wonderful intern from Winthrop, Mrs. Miskelly, was required to teach a few lessons based on unit of her choice.  After talking, we decided it would fit best for her to do Pumpkins!  You've seen other posts from activities and food tastings we did in this unit.  The children have experienced a lot already and have learned about the life cycle of the pumpkin. 

Mrs. Miskelly allowed the children to experience a pumpkin to the fullest by carving one up!  She decided to do this under our document camera so that all the children could see what was inside. 

She encouraged them to predict and draw first what they thought the pumpkin would look like inside and just how many seeds there might be. 

Then, Mrs. Miskelly opened up the pumpkin and the crowd went WILD!

She instructed them to come up and take out a seed.  It was funny to hear how they described what the inside of the pumpkin felt like.  The funniest was, "It feels like throw-up!"

Mrs. Miskelly had also organized some great pumpkin Math Centers!  The children used the rest of our collection of pumpkins and the seeds from this one to measure and compare.

Mrs. Misenheimer helped the children cut a string for how long they thought the circumference of the pumpkin would be.  The children had to say if their string was too long, too short, or just right.



Mrs. Miskelly led a group that predicted which type of pumpkin would weight the most and the least. She numbered each pumpkin and challenged the children the predict with one would weigh the most and least.

She used the big book Pumpkin Pumpkin to further review the life cycle of the pumpkin and to help children see that the life of a pumpkin begins with a seed, and in this case, on a farm!

The children then got to work with the pictures she created on the pocket chart to put the life cycle in order.



One last lesson that tied in many important Social Studies standards was a lesson about producers and consumers.  Mrs. Miskelly really wanted the children to understand that pumpkin pie and pumpkins don't just suddenly appear at the grocery store for us to buy.  There are many other steps and people involved before that!

She got the children up and pretending to be farmers growing pumpkins!  She gave other students some money to "purchase" the pumpkins from the farmers.



With all this new understanding of producers and consumers, Mrs. Miskelly encourage the children to talk about other places that we purchase products such as cars from a dealership or clothes from the mall.  She then gave each child a matching game.  They had to match the product with the place.

 

This turned out to be a great, integrated unit!  The children not only learned about pumpkins but were engaged in math, literacy, science and social studies at the same time! 

Have You Ever Seen A Pumpkin?

Have you ever seen a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin?

Have you ever seen a pumpkin that grows on a vine?

A round one, a tall one.

A fat one, a small one.

Have you ever seen a pumpkin that grows on a vine?

I've seen this poem in so many places online and in so many pumpkin units and my children love it!  We sing it to the tune of "Have you ever seen a Lassie?" 

This pumpkin unit crossed over from Science to English/Language Arts to Social Studies to Math. There was so much learning taking place! I did my best to catch it all on camera for you to see!

One math center planned and taught by Mrs. Miskelly, our intern from Winthrop, challenged the children to put each pumpkin in order by size.  Then, they had to order the pumpkins based on how much each pumpkin weighed. 

Mrs. Claire, one of our wonderful parent volunteers, got to experiment with the children during center time.  We set her up with a big tub of water and the children predicted and then tested if pumpkins sink or float and if the size of each one mattered. 

Also during center time, the children created and painted pumpkins from brown paper bags!

The children also got to read and illustrate the pumpkin poem at the top of this post.

Mrs. Misenheimer and Austin enjoy the poem together! 

Audrey and Kailyn draw their pumpkins on a vine.



Mrs. Miskelly put out some pumpkin seeds and measurement tools at another math center one day.  The children counted them and compared the amount each measuring cup would hold. 

How's all that for learning about Pumpkins? 

And that's just the beginning--there is MORE to come!

Patterning in Guided Math Groups

I have seen the success first hand of the Guided Math Groups that I have implemented this year.  And, the children are having a great time working in small groups. Instruction is focused on each groups level of need within each concept.  This week, we began working with patterns.  On average, the children were able to create and extend simple AB patterns.  Groups this week were meant to challenge that thought--adding other elements to the simplicity of AB. 

One group worked with Fruit Loops to create and represent each patterns they displayed. Mrs. Alice, one of our wonderful parent volunteers, led this group one day.

Another group worked with our vegetable manipulatives to create and extend more complex patterns.

Caitlyn, Vincent, and Zachary created some great vegetable patterns.

A favorite group this past week was the beaded bracelet patterns.  I worked with the children to create a few different patterns of beads that they slid onto a pipe cleaner.  We tied it up into a bracelet when they were finished.

Mrs. Misenheimer worked with a small group to use dot markers to create patterns.  This was a less "guided" group because the children got to independently choose their  patterns.  Mrs. Misenheimer was there to encourage them in different directions if they seemed to choose the same one over and over again.

Like all math concepts, patterns are something we'll continue to practice and notice in the world around us.