This week we learned how to add -es and -ies to words. If you ask your child to say the chants, they should all be able to do it. We did motions with them and everything. I meant to video tape them doing it, but my week go away form me and I completely forgot. Maybe I'll do it on Monday and add another post later. Sometimes, I am simply amazed at how much these kids can comprehend. Adding -es and -ies to words is a really hard concept to learn, but they picked up on it pretty well!
Friday was Dinosaur Day! What better day can a group of 12 boys and 5 girls have?! It was fun and they were on their best behavior all day long (for the most part). As many of you know, I LOVE children's books. I don't think anyone can ever have too many books. Some peoples shopping weakness is shoes, but mine is books. All week we have been reading some of my favorite dinosaur books. This was my first time reading Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With The Family Lazardo, and I think it is a new favorite of mine. Such a cute story, and the kids were really into it the entire time!
Here is another we that we got ready for the Dinosaur Museum on Dinosaur Day. We made habitats for dinosaurs and made little dioramas.
We talked about what the world was like THEN:
And what it is like NOW:
This was my FAVORITE part of the entire day, and I think it was the kids favorite part too! They were SO quiet during this part and were really trying to focus. The students all got to be Paleontologists! They excavated dinosaur bones (chocolate chips) from the earth (a cookie) using a special tool (a toothpick). First they looked at their earth and estimated how many bones they thought were there, then they dug them all out. They had to decide if their estimation was more than or less than the actual number of bones that they found. This activity really went well and I really enjoyed walking around and watching them work. The best part - they got to EAT these bones! :) For the record - I did not come up with all of these ideas, but they sure are great ones!
This was another fun activity that we all loved. We have been working on measuring things with centimeters, so I wen to the dollar store and bought some little dinosaurs. They had to measure the dinosaurs using centimeters and record it on their whiteboard. We talked about what would be the best way to measure them, standing up or on their side. They decided laying them on their side would be easiest. After they all measured 2 different dinosaurs, they compared them to the other ones in their group to see if any of them were the same. Then they held up the dinosaur that was longer, then the dinosaur that was shorter. Because they worked really well during this, they got to keep the dinosaurs.
I love learning in fun ways!
The last game we played, but definitely not the least, was a fun game called more or less? I'll tell ya what...making these cards took longer than I thought it would (about 3 hours longer) but it was completely worth it. It was a fun math game and they will last a long time now (after I get them laminated). For this game, I put about 20 cards into a bag and put them into pairs again. They shake the bag with the cards in it them spill them out on the carpet On the recording sheet, they wrote the numbers (or tally marks) to show how many of each dinosaur are facing up. The children then had to circle the number that was less each time.
After we did all of these fun things, we got to go to the dinosaur museum and see Sue! I learned a lot, and I hope the students did too. It was nice to go out and do something different, and everyone stayed together, and that was my biggest worry! I did NOT want to lose anybody, and it all worked out just fine. :)
