Rockin Out in 4th Grade: January 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

Measurement and Chinese New Year

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

We started off the week with some measurement activities! Students took piles of squares, made 3 towers, and then compared them. (Short, shorter, shortest, taller, taller, tallest, etc...) I even threw in "What is the root word?" And they all answered correctly!!!! ***Proud teacher moment!***

Here are some pictures of them in action:

Then for the rest of the week, my students spent lots of time on Chinese New Year! My initial thought was break students into two groups and have two dragons to parade around school with.
Each student drew a picture of what they wanted their dragon to look like. Then they broke into groups and voted on 1 dragon per team. Here are those dragon winners.

Then they got to work making their dragons.

Not only did they use lots of construction paper and glue, but they also added fun things!

Then one of my students had a brilliant idea! "Mrs. Lynch, can we connect the two dragons to make one big dragon?" SURE!!!! Between duct tape and binder clips, we attached the two tunnels.

Then each student got a piece of red paper. They wrote Happy New Year messages on it and we attached them to make a tail.

Finally, I had a small group made the face. (All I did for the face was give them the basic shape - everything else they did on their own!)

Finally, we attached the head and went parading around the school!

Here are some shots of the dragon itself:

If you're wondering where to get tunnels from, I purchased mine from
http://www.amazon.com/Multi-Color-Childrens-Exploration-K-Roo-Sports/dp/B00ECEJ9XE/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1391224835&sr=1-1&keywords=pop+up+tunnel

(And yes, I used 2 of them!)

As my students paraded around, they shouted "GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!" and told everyone Chinese New Year is celebrated in China which is part of Asia. They also mentioned other facts "You're not supposed to sweep out the front door! If you do, you'll sweep away your bad luck!" "Dragons and lions keep evil spirits away!" So cute!

Let me tell you - we paraded around twice today and I am EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!!!!
Time for bed!

Good night!
Stacey

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Long time....no update

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted! I meant to update this past weekend BUT I forgot to take pictures before leaving work for the weekend! Due to the MLK holiday, a teacher workday, and a snow day, today was my first day back!!! My pictures are now ready to go!!!!

I don't believe I posted this in my last entry or not. I made this several years ago and put it up each year. My students LOVE it!

I'm not sure how well you can see, but the outline of the board has tickets for the Polar Express. My students painted them with gold glitter paint!

Once we came back from winter break, we had fun talking about our New Year's Resolutions! This is what the kids came up with!!!

So cute! The students had fun brainstorming ideas and then making their person!

Our school just started this GOOD LEARNERS ASK GOOD QUESTIONS activity. As students ask good questions, they are written on the small clouds which are then put on the big cloud. The small clouds will be collected each week and put in the front hall for all to see. Here are a few pics:

In case you couldn't tell, the questions my first graders asked had to do with MLK. (We were watching OUR FRIEND MARTIN. We stopped several times to discuss things and they asked some AMAZING questions!)

Speaking of Dr. King, here is one activity we did:

The students gathered facts about Martin and wrote about his life! They did a great job!

Then in small groups, we discussed Martin's dreams for the future. Afterwards, we talked about our dreams and wrote about them.