Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Math Calendar Part 2

This recording shows another part of our math calendar routine. Here, we take whatever day of school it is...in this instance, it was the 57th day, and figure out whether that number is prime, composite, and/or square. We do that by finding all the factors of that number, and along the way, learn the divisibility rules for various numbers. (The video may take awhile to load.)




Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Math Calendar

I am a huge believer in math calendar! Through this daily routine, I can reinforce so many math concepts and vocabulary. I used to do calendar on a big white board, until last spring when I got my wonderful SmartBoard! Over the summer, I created calendar pages using the Smart Notebook software. Here is a peek at one of them that we recorded using Smart Recorder. The class helper does all of the writing with input from the rest of the class, (although when you watch the video, it seems like the writing appears by magic!)


This page is called "Big Number". We always read and write the calendar date as a big number to practice place value. Students are getting really good at reading and identifying the place value of numbers into the ten millions! Look for more recordings about other parts of calendar in the coming days.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Water Cycle Jump


Who says science can't be cool? To accompany our upcoming readers' theater play about the water cycle that we are practicing to perform for our second grade book buddies, we're also rapping along to this video.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Turkeys are Coming!



I am anxiously awaiting the first project of the year...the "Disguise a Turkey Project." Students were given a bare turkey, with the instructions to somehow disguise it so it would not be recognized and eaten. They must also write a persuasive paragraph convincing others that they are NOT a turkey. Projects are due on Tuesday, Nov. 8th.