Hard at work as usual!

I realized I had a few pictures in the camera from before spring break! Take a look at the hard work the children were up to leading up to our week long vacation from school!

 The children learned about writing biographies! Because it was Women's History Month in March, we decided to read and learn about Clara Barton, a nurse on the battlefield during the Civil War. The children took careful, sequential notes about important parts of her life as well as her significant life achievements.

 We gathered a few more facts from a short video online through biography.com. We were excited to see very similar facts to those we read in our book- this both reinforced and validated our learning!

The children transferred their notes into organized sentences and paragraphs. Their work turned out neat, organized, and informative! I was so proud!

 Note Maeve's red crosses- Clara Barton organized the Red Cross in the United States!

 We spent some time during math discussing area, perimeter, and capacity. The children learned the difference between an inch/centimeter, and a SQUARE inch and centimeter!  During our talks about capacity, we did a little experiment. I rolled the same size piece of paper into two differently shaped cylinders. The children had to decide which cylinder had the greater capacity. Which cylinder do you think held the most noodles?

We also learned about the units: gallon, quart, pint, and cup. The children heard a silly story about the Galapagos Islands that helped them to remember how to draw the picture above. Once they can remember the drawing, they will be easily able to recall the equivalencies of these units of measure!

 We ended our rock unit with a brief study of fossils. The children made mold fossils of little dinosaur shapes to experience the difference between a cast fossil and a mold fossil. We also discussed petrified fossils!

 Once the children finished their biographies about Clara Barton, we started searching for another person we would like to learn and write about... and we found a PERFECT subject! Walt Disney!

 Using the website ducksters.com and a great graphic organizer, we gathered as many interesting details about his life as we could!

 The children wrote about Walt's family and early life, as well as the companies he created. They searched independently for interesting facts about the numerous characters he developed that came to life in his countless movies. A few students took their learning even further and went on to investigate the theme parks that evolved from Walt Disney's characters- Disneyland and Disney World! The children loved using the internet- both on their iPad as well as the computer, to research and gather as much information as they could to add to their biography!

 As the days go by quicker than ever, we have reached the end of our class star students! Mr. Gries was our most recent star student, and, like the children, he brought in his mom to visit with us! We learned all about Mr Gries's wife and daughters, his interests, and his mom!

 Mrs. Gries shared two stories with us- Stellaluna, and The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon. She also shared some stories of her days as a 2nd grade teacher, a reading teacher, and a gifted teacher! We all agreed that she would have been a terrific teacher to have!

Thank you for visiting our class, Mrs. Gries! We enjoyed spending time with you!