Momma Always said " Never play with your food"

Last week we learned about 2D (Flat) and 3D (Solid) figures in my classroom. I am teaching the new Common Core Math this year and loving it!!!  All week we did hands on activities to learn how to identify flat and solid figures. Monday we did a paper bag activity. I put flat and solid figures into a paper bag and each child had to reach into the bag, feel the figure and identify the figure as a flat or solid. After the figure was identified the student pulled the figure out of the bag for the other students to see. Tuesday we did a flat and solid sorting activity. A co-teacher and myself collected things from around our houses and put them in one big box. The students had to find two figures  in the box that were alike and describe how the figures where alike and if they were flats or solids. Wednesday we found things around our classroom that are flats and solids. Thursday was what the students described as the BEST Math lesson ever...we sorted flat and solid foods. I sent home a letter asking students to bring in different foods that are flat and solid figures.
This is what the students brought in:
circle-pepperoni
triangle- triangle cheez- its crackers out of the chedder chex mix
square-wheat thins/cheez-its
rectangle-graham crackers
sphere - yogo's/ whoppers
cylinder - marshmallows/Combos
cube -cheese/caramel
rectangular prism- twix/ kit kat
cone- Bugles
This is what our bag of "figures" looked  like:

This is what they looked like sorted into flats and solids:

We did not learn the names of the shapes just whether the shape was a flat or solid...names are coming later !!!

How tall is Miss Jordan?

Everyday I have a student come up to me and say "Miss Jordan I am as tall as you." these students being 4th, 3rd, and 2nd graders. So this week in math we started learning about  nonstandard units of measurement. I thought it would be fun for the students to measure each other using cubes. I decided to lay in the floor and let my students measure me. My students loved it!!! I had some counting by 10's, 5's and 1's. This activity opened their minds up to a lot of what ifs...what if we used pencils, what if we used chairs, and what if we used paper clips. This lesson starter opened up a whole new math lesson of estimation and comparing.

Oh yeah I was 74 cubes tall...

Day 100

Thursday we celebrated the 100th day of school. My kids came to school so excited because we were going to do fun activities all day for the 100th day. One of the activities we did was What I will look like when I am 100 years old. They turned out super cute. One little girl drew a picture of what she looks like now hanging in the background of what she will look like when she is 100.

Another child said she would have lots of wrinkles.

So what will you look like when you are 100 years old?

Kindergarten Cop

I am the teacher who loves animals. My assistant does not enjoy animals as much as I do. The students and I have talked about how we love animals and of course they all want to bring their pet to school to share with the other students. On Fridays we have Show'N Tell. The students bring different things to share with the class that is associated with the letter of the week. This week our letter was E so we ended up with a lot of elephants, but we had one special guest Princess. Princess is a Ferret. Now I bet you are wondering how in the world we ended up with something for Show'N Tell that starts with the letter F on the Letter E week. Well it kinda happened like this...I have a precious little girl who loves animals as much as I do and she came up to me the day before (Thursday) and said "Miss Jordan can I bring Princess, my ferret, tomorrow for Show'N Tell?" I said "Does Princess start with the letter E?" Her response to my question was "No!" Then I asked "Does ferret start with the letter E?" She said "no"and walked away. As we were leaving for the day she said " You know, Miss Jordan, ferret does not start with an E but the second letter is an E" so of course how could I tell the child "No" when she had thought of a way to associate the letter E with what she was wanting to bring for Show'N Tell. So Friday we had a guest in our classroom....Princess. Princess was very friendly so at Show'N Tell time we sat in a big circle and let Princess run around and the students could pet her. I don't know how many of you have ever watched Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwarzenegger but if you have and you remember Show'N Tell and the ferret scene then you know exactly how our Show'N Tell went Friday. We hope that Princess,the ferret, will come back and spend the day with us again. Oh and my assistant asked 'Is that a malnourished possum?" students "NO, it is a ferret don't you want to pet it?" "NO NO NO" as she is running out the door.

Miss Jordan & Princess