Bright Smiles

We learned so much about our teeth and taking care of them! Here is how we started... We described what we already knew about teeth and recorded them on this large tooth. We learned all about the parts (inside and outside) of a tooth. This is the brace map we created to show all of those parts. We created and labeled our own version.

We discovered that we have 20 baby teeth, 10 on top and 10 on the bottom. We made these mouths using marshmallows. This is how we also practiced the numbers 1-10 and introduced the numbers 11-20. We placed a marshmallow on each number. These were a lot of fun!

We inferred using the story Tooth Trouble. We had to infer why the main character, Wilbur, kept saying he didn't need to go to the dentist even though his tooth was hurting.

We talked a lot about ways we can take care of our teeth. We acted as scientists to discover what happens to our teeth when we drink sugary teeth. We asked the question "What happens when we drink sugary drinks?". We formed our hypothesis and tested them by placing an egg in Coke and an egg in water. We used an egg because the shell would be similar to the enamel on our teeth. We left them in the liquids overnight and checked them the next day. The egg in water did not seem to change. The egg in Coke did not look so good...We came to the conclusion that sugary drinks, like Coke, will stain and weaken the enamel on our teeth.

We graphed the number of teeth we have lost.

We wrote letters to the Tooth Fairy and wrote about what we think she looks like. She actually wrote us a letter back and left us some fairy dust (which I totally forgot to take a picture of...). We wrote about our smiles. We made our special snack. The marshmallow fluff did not stick as well as we hoped to the apple. These are supposed to look like smiles. The ones on Pinterest were much better looking, but the kids said they tasted great!

Valentine's Day

Oh my goodness!!! That is all I can say about the AMAZING Valentine's Boxes the kids created at home! Thanks to Empowering Little Learners for the wonderful idea for a family project. The kids had some very creative and adorable boxes to store these special treats and notes. Here are a few photos of some along with a few pics of some of our other activities. Thanks so much from Ms. Schiffer, Ms. Herron, and I for all of the yummy goodies and super sweet notes. We are "smitten" with our class!

Here we are delivering our notes!! We made a scrapbook to keep some of our special cards!

We participated in Valentine Math Stations. We used pattern blocks to fill a heart, sorted and counted candy hearts, and weighed objects on a scale using conversation hearts.

We made a heart man!

Happy 100th Day!!

I cannot believe we have already made it to 100 days in school! This year is flying by! We celebrated all day long! We read lots of books that had to do with 100 in some way, shape, or form. One was the Dr. Seuss tale I Can Teach My Dog 100 Words. We loved this one! We decided to see if we have learned 100 words. We made this circle map to prove it! Sorry the photo is a bit blurry.

We talked about what life might be like 100 years from now and what we might look like when we are 100. We made self portraits of how we think we will change. This came from Deanna Jump's 100th day unit on TpT. These turned out sooo adorable! One of my new fav things. I loved hearing the kids description of what it would be like to be that old. They talked about how their hair would be gray/white or gone and they might need glasses to see. They also talked about how they would walk differently, like with a cane or hunched over. The best though was hearing someone say as they finished their portrait..."Man, I look like my grandpa!". Too funny!

Here are how they turned out!

Love them!

Math was full of opportunities to explore the number 100. We made 100 day crowns by putting 100 stickers, stamps, or dots on strips in groups of 10.

We made 100 day necklaces by threading Fruit Loops in groups of 10 on a string to 100. This was a little tougher than we thought. Most of us were unable to completely finish, but it was fun trying!

We used our 100 collections to practice measuring length. We stretched our 100 objects down the hall in a straight line. We counted how many floor tiles/squares long our collection was.

We made 2 class books. We wrote about what we do if we had 100 dollars (it's amazing what we think $100 will buy). We also wrote about how we are 100 days smarter. We described what we are now able to do that we could not do when we first started school. We truly have come a long way in 100 days!

Our favorite though was the 100 day Olympics. We "competed" in events including the number 100. We had a 100 bean bag toss (one in which we tried to get the bag through the 0 in 100, and one where we tried to get 100 points as a team). We did 100 different exercises (10 sets of 10 reps). We ran a 100 yd. dash. We tried to keep a hula hoop going as we counted to 100. We tried jump roping 100 times in a row. We bounced a ball 100 times, and we used sidewalk chalk to write numbers to 100 and play hopscotch.

Polar Animals

The kids have LOVED learning about Polar Animals. We discovered so many interesting facts about polar bears and walruses. Continuing with our nonfiction study, we read several NF books about polar bears, including one by Gail Gibbons. Here is a tree map we put together to list all of our new learning. We used this map to help us write 2 facts in our Polar Animals book about these giant artic mammals. We also completed a diagram of a Polar Bear. Did you know that their skin is black and they have no eyelashes?? Those were the big topics! We used a double bubble map to compare polar bears to penguins. We also learned about walruses. We found out that they can actually whistle. The have very long tusks. During our shared reading time, we read 2 different versions of The Three Bears and completed a story map to record details from each one. First, was a traditional Goldilocks and The Three Bears by Jan Brett. We were all pretty familiar with this one. Next, we read The Three Snow Bears (also by Jan Brett). This one featured polar bears who lived in an igloo! Dispite those differences, there were many similar elements. See our chart below.

Here are a few photos of our Penguin books from last week. These came from Deanna Jump's Penguin unit.