Edible Landforms

As you know we have just finished our social studies unit which included geography, landforms, and a number of other great activities. We did centers revolving around these concepts this week. We culminated the unit by making "edible landforms." The students were given a sugar cookie "island" and a blue plate "water" and were told to build landforms and forms of water on their island. We used candy corns for mountains, peppermint patties for hills (broken in half), hershey's bars for plateaus, blue icing for water, and green sprinkles for grass. We had a great time and a great amount of sugar with this activity! Below are pictures of everyone's landforms.

Think Tank- Women's History Month

This month our Think Tank was centered around famous women in honor of women's history month. Overall, the kids' favorite activities were the creative ones that allowed them the opportunity to draw! They all learned new and interesting facts about important women throughout history.

What is a sniglet?

A "sniglet" is a word that isn't in the dictionary but should be. My example to the kids was phonesia- when you have made a phone call and as soon as the person picks up you forget who you were calling. After the kids came up with their "sniglet" we put them in alphabetical order just like they would be found in the dictionary.

Sammie's sniglet was sanitizerobia- the phobia of getting hand sanitizer in your eye or getting it someplace you'll never expect.

Josie's sniglet was laughomenoua- when you laugh too long and hard and your side hurts.

Casey's sniglet is elecway- when a high school student gets a bad grade and gets all electronics taken away.

Nathan's sniglet was mousold- a really old mosquito that has whiskers.

Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist who created contraptions to accomplish simple tasks. As we finished our polished pieces for functional writing, the students were given choices of other functional writing pieces to work on. The students loved doing these "Rube Goldbergs" as we called them, and most students did several.

Luke's simple task was how to crack a nut- he called his contraption "The Cracker."
Aubrey's simple task was to open a book. She invented "The Book Opener."

Trey's simple task was turning the key in the car. His invention was called "The Helper."

Abstract Art

A few weeks ago we had an opportunity to learn about art. I decided to start with abstract art. We saw several different examples of abstract art work done by different artists. We had a discussion about a specific painting called "The City" by Fernand Leger. We looked at the painting and looked for shapes, colors, and different kinds of lines. We discussed how it made us feel and how we thought the artist was feeling. After we discussed, the children got to create their own art. The Leger piece was painted, but I wanted the kids to use construction paper for their assignment. They were assigned to make their own version of "The City" from their perspective. Afterwards, they each made up a name for their art and told us why they had chosen that name. They then had to pick out 3 important features from their artwork to highlight.

This picture shows the class hard at work. How interesting that some children created better artwork by standing!
This is a picture of "The City" by Fernand Leger that we discussed.

I wanted to highlight each child's work on this posting so I displayed the artwork outside our classroom above our writing standards board. This is the artwork of Aubrey, Alex, Jack B., Josie, and Jake. (You can also see our fantastic brochure reports underneath our artwork!)

This is the artwork of Kinsey, Ryan, Jack L., Sammie, and Hailey.

This is the artwork of Luke, Trey, Casey, and Thai.

This is the artwork of Michael, Nathan, Ian, and Mikayla.

What shape are you?

Today we did an activity in math called "What Shape Are You?" The students used a piece of string to measure their height. Then they took that string and compared it against their wingspan. If it was the exact same size, then they were a square. If it was longer or shorter, then you were a rectangle. They did a great job working together and helping each other!

Here Jake is measuring Jack B.
In this picture, Alex is measuring Thai.

Josie is very proud to be a rectangle!

Here are all the kids in the class that were squares.

Here are the rest of the class who turned out to be rectangles!

Think Tank Toys and Games

All of the students in the picture below invented a new toy or game.
Jake- Lego Adventures
Thai- Car Race
Aubrey- Miami Game
Hailey- Bracelet Maker
Sammie- Hampster Fun
Luke- Chorry
Josie- Lost in Flight
Ian- Monopoly World Adventure
Kinsey- Beary
Casey- Football Launcher
Nathan- Penguin Walker
Mikayla- Waterball and Sew a Car
Ryan- Footbatimer
Michael- Transform Board
Jack B- Lego Indiana Jones Quest
Eli- Dragon Kingdom Chess

We have finished another Think Tank! This one was all about Toys and Games. Activity #3 (pictured above) was to invent a new toy or game. Many of the students chose this one and found that it took an awfully long time, but they put so much detail into it! They made the game board, pieces, dice, etc.. Check out all the pictures below!

Nathan compared Teletubbies and video games. Jack L compared Beenie Babies and a yo-yo.

These students wrote about their favorite toy.

Hailey chose Scrabble. Alex chose Legos. Jack L. chose Webkinz. Mikayla chose Silly Putty. Nathan chose Beenie Babies. Cameron chose Legos.

The students in this picture wrote questions to ask the inventor of a specific toy or game.

Alex and Jack B. both worked on summarizing the book How a Crayon is made.

All of these students created an advertisement. Some chose to make it for the game or toy they invented and some made it for an existing game or toy.

This activity was an extra called Toys R Old. Kids had to take old toys and find a way to recycle them so they can be used once more.

Eli made a toy helicopter into a toy that could carry the trash out of the house.