Money, money,money

We have had so much fun learning about money in math. We are playing games that help us count up coins. We start with the largest value coin we have then count the next largest value coin, and so on. We are trying to remember how to skip count by 25's so that we can count 1, 2, 3, or 4 quarters. Then we have to know how to count by 10's starting at 25, 50, or 75. Next we have to change from skip counting by 10's to 5's with nickels. The last step in counting a pile of coins is counting up by 1s with the remaining pennies. The more practice children can have with real coins the better. Counting coins every day in realistic situations help children know the value of money. So if you go to the store or get change back when buying lunch let your 2nd grader count it for you. One of our favorite games is Dollar Dice Game. Find the link to it on the left side of our blog. All you need is a pile of coins and 1 die. Then see who gets exactly $1.00 first.

Maker space

On Friday we went to Maker Space at the end of the day.We played with Snap Circuits. Two students built a motorized propeller that popped off when the motor was stopped. 

Two students are working together and using the manual to build their snap circuit machine. 

Many of the students had fun building the propeller launcher. 

This was the kit that we used. We did not have enough time to build all of the 100 exciting projects. 

Hint, hint... this might be a great gift idea. 

These students built a speaker that played Happy Birthday and if they clapped near the speaker it played on its own. It was the perfect song for our class because 2 students were celebrating their 8th birthday on Friday. 

We love going to Maker Space on Fridays. 

Sharing our feast (written by Mrs. Howard and her class)

On Friday Room 1 had a Thanksgiving feast. We invited our parents and grandparents to eat with us. Many were able to come for lunch. At the feast we ate chicken, rolls, carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. We made the butter for the feast. We shook glass jars filled with whipping cream and salt during Read-Aloud. After a lot of shaking the cream turned into solid butter. We had been reading Little House in the Big Woods and Ma made butter every week in a churn. We wanted to try to make it too. The butter was delicious with our rolls at the feast. For dessert we enjoyed pumpkin bars and  butterscotch cupcakes. The feast was a special time to share a meal with our parents and grandparents, whom we are very thankful for in our lives. The Thanksgiving feast is a special tradition in Room 1 that no one else does. After the feast was over some of us shared our Thanksgiving poems with our parents. The poems are on display in the hallway today and tomorrow too. 

Creative writing

We have used writing time this week to think about all of the many things we are thankful for. We used a graphic organizer to help us start our brainstorming and create lists we could use as we wrote our poems. Then we started the writing process. Many "Thankful" poems were written. We had so, so many things that we enjoy in our lives. It is nice to think about being thankful, instead of just wanting more things.  After the writing was finished, we typed our poems into a Word document to print off on watercolor paper. Today Mrs. Howard took a deep breath and brought out the watercolor paints. Each poem had been covered with a leaf cutout. Everybody enjoyed painting their poems with fall colors. Our creative writing masterpieces will be on display for our feast tomorrow.

Library discoveries!

Each year Daniel Boone Regional Library hosts a field trip for 2nd graders so  they can become more familiar with what the library can offer beyond books. We discovered that we can check out books that we can listen to on an MP3 player. They are called play-aways. We learned that we can use the computers in the children's section for 30 minutes to play games. The computers are new and have touch screens to make them easier to use. We know where the children's desk is. If we have questions about how to find a book or want to use a computer that is where we can go to get help. Before we left we were given "goody" bags. Each bag had a word search, a color-changing pencil, and a certificate for a free book on the next visit to the library. Lots of smiles at the library!

Starting our days off right

Our mornings start off reviewing what month and day it is. This helps us make sense of the calendar and teaches us how to use it. Then we tackle the number of the day. We write it in words, make it with  tens and ones, add and subtract 1 and 10 from it. We also create a portion of a number line using the number of the day as the starting point and the ending point. It helps us get math in twice during our day at school. It is getting more challenging as we have been in school over 50 days now. 

It's Party Time

We had a blast in Room 1 at the end of the day on Friday. So many parents helped us have a fantastic Fall Party. We wouldn't have a party without their help. There were yummy treats to eat, creepy crafts to make, and one very messy game.  We enjoyed playing musical chairs and BINGO too.What a fun way to end October! 

Yucky, slimy pumpkin guts is math?

Yes, pumpkin guts, or more precisely, slimy pumpkin seeds were math today. We estimated how many lines,or ridges, our pumpkins had, how many cubes tall and how many cubes around our pumpkins were, and how many seeds our pumpkins had. Then we were ready measure and count the seeds to find the actual answers. Estimations are just good guesses, but we found out that some of our estimates were too much and some were pretty close. And we had a lot of messy fun doing it!

I'm giving it a try

I told my students that I would try something new that I didn't know how to do. So here's my first blog post for my classroom blog.
I have successfully (I think) downloaded our November calendar and our daily schedule. I have also linked up our homework site, Scoot Pad, and our new spelling site, Spelling City to our blog.
I will be trying to use this several times a week to keep families and friends of Room 1 at RBE up to date with what we are doing in our classroom.
Please be patient with me as I learn how to navigate this new world called blogging.
Stay tuned for more news from our room......