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