Big Ideas and Lots of Creativity in Room 403!

So sorry for the long time no blog post!  What can I say...it's getting near the end of the school year, and we are busy people in room 403!  We are working hard in reading groups with our Magic Tree House Books.  We are diving into these chapter books and completing in - depth book studies.  We are working with comprehension skills, such as compare and contrast, inferring, and drawing conclusions.  Not only are we involved in group discussions about each chapter, we are also learning about science and social studies topics too.  Let's take a look at what we've been doing.

                                                       
Two of my reading groups have been reading the first book in the Magic Tree House Series.  We have been learning about prehistoric times when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Here are a few of our activities from this book...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reading group is reading the second Magic Tree House book, The Knight at Dawn. The characters, Jack and Annie, travel back to the Medieval times.  My group and I have started learning about castles and knights.  It has been very interesting! 

Here is writing activity one of my students completed...

 

 

 

After researching the parts of castles and viewing different castles, the students worked on castle projects for this book study.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the completed projects...

 

 

 

 

You can see a lot of imagination and creativity in these projects!

 

We completed our plants unit last week.  We finished this unit by learning about a Russian artist named Wassily Kandinsky.  Kandinsky loved circles and he used color to show emotion in his art.  We made Kandinsky circle flowers (connecting science, art, and math). 

 

 

 

 

A few days after this project, something amazing happened!  My sweet, beautiful Anna brought in an amazing project about Wassily Kandinsky. 

 

 

 

 

 

Although teachers are to inspire their students, it is times like this when I am inspired by a student's love of learning.  This gives me the motivation and drive to take learning further for each of my students and teach them all that I can.  To Anna and all of my students I thank you all for making me strive to become a better teacher!  Hugs and Love to all of you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Review and Unit Test

This week we will be reviewing unit 5 reading skills and will be taking the unit 5 test.  Please make sure your child is present every day this week.  It is very important that he/she is present for the review and for the test.  There will be no spelling test, weekly selection test, or grammar test this week.

We are continuing to work on measurement this week.  We have learned about inches, feet, and yards.  We will continue to work with these units of measurement, as well as, centimeters and meters.

We have studying goods and services in social studies.  It has been a very interesting unit!  We have just completed a project for this unit and will have presentations this week.  The children took just ordinary boxes...

 

and created a neighborhood block where you would find business that either sold goods or provided services.

 



 

 

 

 

I have the most wonderful volunteer (a certified teacher!!) working with my groups with enrichment activities on Tuesday and Thursday.  Her name is Mrs. Jessica Moore and the children absolutely love her!!  In connection with the Sochi Olympic Games, Mrs. Moore connected these games with the architecture in Russia.  The children worked with vocabulary terms such as inferring, compare and contrast, and quadrants while working on this activity.  This enrichment activity was based on the architectural structure, the St. Basil Cathedral in Russia.

 

                                 

 

                     

The children learned about architectural structures such as arches and onion domes.  The children then used oil pastels to create their own cathedral.  They then used water colors to create the background to their art piece.

Here are the final results...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These turned out absolutely beautiful and the children learned a lot from this activity!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Makes My Heart SMile!

Two of my precious students added to their animal presentations by researching their animals at home.  They even made these amazing books to share with the class!  Aren't these GREAT!  I am very proud of Annabel (on the left) and Averi (on the right)! These sweet girls make my heart smile every day!

 

 

Wild About Animals

I am so excited to share with you our animals unit that we are finishing this week.  I hope you enjoy!

 

 

(All sheets were printed from the TPT store.)

We listened to several read-aloud books about animals.
We listened to books about insects and completed a fact sheet on the insect of choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learned about life cycles.

 

 

The children chose an animal and researched the animal using the National Geographic website for kids.  This is the research form we used to record our facts.  We learned a lot about these animals.  We learned many vocabulary words such as migrate, hibernate, adapt, cold-blooded, warm-blooded, carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore.

 

 

The children began work on their tri-fold boards for their projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the animal projects! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't these amazing?!  The children will finish presenting their projects to the class Monday.
I am very proud of these wonderful students!