Smart Cookies

The Connected Combo is full of smart cookies.  In addition to comparing and contrasting different gingerbread stories, we did all sorts of learning with the gingerbread theme.   We have six new word wizard words that seem to keep popping up in the stories.  Have you heard your child using these words: fancy, shaped, rather, delicious, boast, and devour.

 

One of our learning centers was to sort the cookies by beginning sound.  Then, in spelling, we made words from the letters g-i-n-g-e-r-b-r-e-a-d.   For writing, the first graders used adjectives and transition words (first, next, then, last) to write a piece on how to eat a gingerbread cookie.  While the second graders also wrote a how to piece, their writing was about how to catch a gingerbread cookie.

For art, we made gingerbread ornaments and giant gingerbread faces.  In math, the first graders worked on fact families and missing addend problems.  For example, I have 15 gingerbread cookies.  8 are in the cookie jar.  How many are still in the oven?  We used a balance tool to check our work.  The second graders started building a foundation for multiplication by making cookie sheet arrays.

Gingerbread even made its way into science.  In one of the gingerbread stories, the fox tricks the gingerbread man by convincing him to ride on his back across the river.  In this science experiment, our key question was: What would happen to the gingerbread man if he "swam" across the river himself?  We made predictions then tested our hypothesis.  The students observed and recorded what was happening to the gingerbread man in water at 20 minutes and one hour.  They concluded that water makes the gingerbread soggy and it will break apart.  Great work, scientists!

 

Finally, we worked computer science into the gingerbread theme thanks to a teacher blogger from Oklahoma that I adore (Brooke Brown @ Teach Outside the Box).   In this "unplugged" coding activity, player one created a path to the gingerbread house.  The path included two treats to eat and one enemy to avoid.  Then, player two had to use symbols to code the path to the house.  The students did amazing playing the game.

 

Gingerbread Stories

We have spent these first days of December reading and discussing different gingerbread tales.  We read several different versions of the story.  We read The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Bear, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Cowboy, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, and Gingerbread Pirates....just to name a few.  Did you know there were so many?  While we read, we compared and contrasted the stories.  We recorded our notes on a huge classroom chart.  We wrote the characters, refrain, and endings for each story.

We had some wonderful help meeting this important standard.  Our pen pals, education majors from Rocky, came into the classroom to read three of the versions on Wednesday.  The college students did such a great job reading and discussing the story elements.  Some even dressed up and brought props!  Then, at the end of their visit, the Rocky students gave each of the children a homemade gingerbread cookie that they decorated to go with their story.  So fun!




The students were so lively in their discussions.  I even caught them independently discussing other versions that they had read or listened to on the ipads.  Several students checked out other Gingerbread stories in the library this week.  Mrs. Jensen even had a gingerbread QR hunt for the children in library class.  In addition to reading the stories, we also had learning centers with a gingerbread theme...but you will have to read about that in the "Smart Cookies" post above!

Contraction Surgery

For spelling last week, we turned our room into an operating room and preformed some very important spelling surgeries. Students had to work in surgical teams to remove certain letters.  Then, bandages and apostrophe sized scars were put in the missing letters' place. After the surgeries, the doctors made rounds. Our patients are very happy with the results and are recovering beautifully. We have a very talented group of doctors.

A free picture slideshow by Smilebox

STEM Gifts

Are you starting your holiday shopping?  I was looking for gifts for my own scientists and I came upon this blog post.  I follow this teacher's blog and really LOVE her activities and ideas.  Perhaps you will find these ideas helpful.  Click here for the link to the post.

Turkey Time

Have I told you lately how much I love these turkeys!  I am so thankful for all the children in the wonderful group.  This week we did some turkey themed learning.  From the turkey handshake (above) to our thankful books shaped like turkeys, we love learning.

One of the student's favorite turkey activities was the turkey STEM challenge.  The students had to create a shelter to conceal a turkey.  They worked with a partner to design and create the shelter using classroom materials like Jenga blocks, legos, base ten blocks, or dominos.  These are some clever engineers.

We are just loving STEM.  I can't wait to get back in December and begin our first Project Lead the Way module and some computer science.  I sure hope you and yours have a very sweet Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the pie and loved ones....and here is a hand turkey parade in the spirit of Thanksgiving.