Sunday, February 23, 2014

Catching Up with Room 8

Hi all.  We finally had a week not interrupted with a snow day.  Although it was a short week, being off on Presidents Day, I think I'm about to get my first graders back on our regular schedule.  Of course, it is still February, so who knows about next week.
One thing I do know is that we were extra busy in room 8, making up for our unplanned off days.
We've been working a bit with fractions and still have a little more to go.  One of the activities we did was Fraction Mystery Bags.
I put different groups of objects or shapes divided into fractions, along with a question in each bag.  Students had to read the question, take out the objects, and answer the question on their recording sheets.
Let me tell you, they loved this activity.  It could certainly work with different math skills or different subjects.  Mystery Bags are just another way to keep things interesting.
If you would like a free copy of a recording sheet to use with this activity in your class, click on the picture. I kept the recording sheet very general, so it can be used with many different skills.

International Random Acts of Kindness was February 10th-16th.  Since we missed a couple of days during RAK week, my class finished up their random acts of kindness this week.
My firsties decorated doors and made goodie bags for some of the faculty and staff members at our school.  They also made bird feeders for our bird friends on campus.  It warmed my heart to see how excited they were to share their kindness.

We also spent the week with the Presidents.  There are so many wonderful nonfiction and fiction books about this topic.  Students worked on some Presidential math (from my February math centers, Classroom Cupids).   They also completed a research writing craftivity about George Washington.  .

You can click on the pic below for a FREE pattern of the Washington craftivity.

After such a busy week, I (as always) was totally ready for the weekend.  And hallelujah, we finally had some pretty weather.  My little family took full advantage of the sunshine.  We ate a picnic lunch outside on Saturday.   D and I had attended an event that benefited our daughter's school system.  I didn't even have to wear a coat, which makes me want spring to get here tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

6 comments:

  1. I love your mystery bag activity- I think I will try it in my room with a reading theme!
    Hope you are still having nice weather!
    Aylin :)
    Learning to the Core

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  2. I really like your mystery bag idea. I have purchased all of your math centers so far this year. Would you be willing to share your mystery bag idea?
    kaysercandace@yahoo.com

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    1. I've linked up some recording sheet options to the Mystery Bags pic above. Hope you can use them.
      Thanks for stopping by.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hi! Sorry I goofed on the comment- and deleted it. Duh. I just wanted to stop by and say HI! You always do such darling things in your classroom. You have some very neat printers, too! :): What a beautiful picture of you and your husband. We are supposed to get a big storm Sunday night... so we will see about that. This was our first 5 day week in a while. :) Talk to you soon!
    Carolyn
    Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together

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