Friday, September 30, 2011

More Math With Apples

We made an apple graph using this poster.

Here is what the finished graph looked like.


After making the graph, we added the red and yellow together to see how many we would have.  We did the same with the yellow and green apples and red and green apples.  After that, someone suggested we add all of the apples together.  I recoreded our information on this board.  

Just another fun way of counting and recognizing math symbols.  

We painted apple trees for our hall bulletin board.







After the paintings dried, we added a math sentence to them using the words "more and less".  Aren't they beautiful! 





 These paintings turned our bulletin board into a gorgeous apple orchard!!

Doesn't it make you want to go out to a real apple orchard and pick some apples!





Apple Days and Tally Marks

Oh, what fun we have had this week with apples.  We have celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday, learned some about early American life.  During rest time we have listened to a great "tape" about the adventures of Johnny Appleseed.  Many years ago the second graders at our school would entertain us with a musical about Johnny Appleseed.  It was always one of my favorites.  I loved it so much the music teacher gave me a copy of a performance tape from the company who wrote the musical.  It is so sweet, and has so many good character lessons.  And the it tells the story of Johnny Appleseed with such the beautiful music.  My problem with it, is that i go home singing the songs and cannot get them out of my head. LOL!

Take a look a a couple of math activities we did with apples.
Many years ago I made these little felt apples as part of a classroom management system.  Well, after I decided that I did not like what I was doing, I changed to a new system.  But, after putting so many hours  into making these little apples, I was determined to create an activity to use them.  Here is what I cam up with. While holding an apple, the children would pretend that they were apple trees and drop the apple. 





 They would then record the results with tally marks.  We also talked about apple trees do not throw there apples across the yard, they simply fall to the ground under the tree.  




We did this as a large group activity.  I rang a bell and the children would begin dropping their apples.  Amazingly, they were very quiet doing this activity. Trees don't talk.  And they were thinking as they recorded their information.  It is a lot to remember to cross over the fifth tally mark in a group, and to circle two groups pf five to make a group of ten.  

Here is a close up of the apples. 

After enough time for the children to have a good amount of information, I rang the bell to stop.  The children counted how many tally marks they had for each color.  We then did a large chart .  Each child told of which color they had the most tally marks.  We recorded that information in tally marks on our board to  see the results.  Here they are.


This was such a fun activity with so many lessons.  I love teaching and making it fun and meaningful.  That is what creates life-long memories.




Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Pablo Picasso Who?



We have recently studied sunflowers in our class.  And we learned so many interesting things.  We also created some sunflowers to accompany this poem on our bulletin board.  They made such a beautiful garden.

We did some painting of sunflowers.  And oh, how lovely they are.. 





All I have to say is, move over Picasso.




So, I  guess I will ask you.  What do you think?


Friday, September 16, 2011

Bears,Bears, and More Bears

Our week of bears is coming to an end.  And oh, what fun we have had.  We have read many books about bears, some fact and some fiction.  We have have done many activities with bears.

During our morning meeting with our teddy bears, each child told something about their bear.  They dictated the information to me to write on a chart.  We then discussed using uppercase letters at the beginning of a sentence and when writing some one's special name.  I drew a square around those words.  We also talked about a period at the end of a sentence and circled those.  The word bear was underlined in each sentence.


  Take a look at a few things we did in our centers.   We read and listened to stories about bears.

Don't you just love our new rug!!!  It is soooooo pretty and comfy too!




We spelled words with bears.  Some we spelled forward, and some backward. LOL!








We used bears to make patterns.  One sweet little girl told me she was making a pattern of bears using Christmas colors.  

Another enthusiastic child was eager to tell me that he was making a pattern using two kinds of the same color!


And my next little friend said that he was using bright colors in his patterns.


An oh, how fun it is to make patterns using many colors.



We read the book THE TEDDY BEAR PICNIC.

And then play a game about the teddy bear picnic. 


This game is a very simple game.  Just roll the die and move the correct amount of spaces to get your teddy bear from the house to the picnic in the woods!  Though it is a simple game, there are many lessons here.  
1.  reading the numeral on the die.
2.  counting and moving the correct number of spaces.
3.  moving only your teddy bear.
4.  taking your turn.
5.  when rolling the die, not throwing it across the room.  (This one seemed to be a problem for a couple of little friends.)  Resulted in a little timeout.  And oh, that was no fun..  I think lesson was learned.  At least for today.  

One the most interesting centers was to measure and record the length of your Teddy Bear's ears, arms, and legs.  And then measure the height of your bear.  


We played a few other games with a teddy bear theme that focused on beginning sounds, rhyming words, and identifying the number of objects in a set.  





We also colored, cut and sorted the beds, bowls, and chairs of The Three Bears.  And for a little writing, we wrote the names, Papa, Mama, and Baby under the bears pictures.






We have had such a fun week and learned so many things!!