Tech Update

This month we have been working on creating a Pic Collage using images from the app Scribble Press.  First, the girls learned how select a layout in PicCollage based on how many images they had.  Next, the students had to take a screen shot of each page of a book in Scribble Press then import it into PicCollage.  Once the entire book was imported, students printed the PicCollage.  We have also been working in BrainPop Jr.

Annie Oakley, Chunking and Parallel Lines

We had another famous female come to visit today--Annie Oakley!  Many thanks to Mike Cogdall for the Oscar-worthy performance.

During our language arts period, the girls learned about breaking words into chunks (aka syllables).  We taught them three different ways to break apart a word: clap it out, robot speak and holding their hand under their chin.  Ask your daughter which way was her favorite.

As we broke apart all of our names into syllables, most of the girls chose robot speak.  Here are two of our robots breaking apart their names.

We finished our syllable activity by getting into partners and sorting St. Patrick's Day words by chunks.

In math the girls learned about parallel lines.  After looking at different shapes and identifying the parallel lines on the shapes, the girls broke up into partners and groups to create human parallel lines. Finally, using the Educreations app, the girls took pictures of items in our classroom that have parallel lines.  They then recorded themselves "teaching" their friends why these objects had parallel lines.

To end our day, we had a special Mystery Reader--Mrs. McMahon's father!  We think the girls were a little shocked to see that Mrs. McMahon actually has a dad :-)

Famous Females!

The girls were lucky enough to have several famous females come in to visit them this week.

Jim Lancaster presented Clara Barton.

Here's our smiling picture.

Life on the Pre-First battlefield--bandaged up by Clara Barton.

Lauren Colton as Sally Ride.

Many thanks for the space ice cream!

Rhonda Wright as Mae Jemison.

All doctor/astronauts give out lollipops.

In math today, we continued studying and identifying different shapes.

The girls played "Name That Shape" where they had to identify a shape with their eyes closed.

Next we created a class graph of the shapes we have learned.

After that, the girls returned to their seats to create bar graphs of the various shapes' vertices and sides.

Finally, the girls made the 2-D shapes on the geoboards.

During our Writer's Workshop, the girls worked diligently on their How-To books.  

Geometry and Wilma

We continued our study of geometry this week by learning the different attributes of a square, triangle, circle and rectangle.  The girls had to identify each shape by its characteristics and make each shape with model magic.

Determined. Brave.  Amazing.  These are just three of the words that your daughters used to describe Wilma Rudolph, our second famous female we studied in our latest social studies unit on Women in History.  We read the book Wilma Unlimited and discussed everything that Wilma had to overcome in order to be labeled the fastest woman on earth.  After we read the story, we brainstormed our favorite facts about her and made our own gold medals. 

Many thanks to Jane Lancaster for being our Mystery Reader on this rainy day!