We are so happy to be back together after our long winter break! We got right back into our flow and learning together with new younger buddies, geodes, geometry, new stories, interesting descriptions, field trips every Friday, AND having a new friend in our classroom! Can it get any more amazing around here?!In math, we are taking a break from reasoning numerically by reasoning spatially. We investigated polygons (versus non-polygon) shapes, learned new words to help us describe shapes and lines such as parallel, perpendicular, vertex, not to mention the names for the different sided shapes. We loved all the Greek and Latin! Something that blew our minds was that not all triangles, pentagons, and hexagons look the same. For example, a pentagon can look like a house (regular pentagon) but it can also look very different (an irregular)- as long as it has five sides, it's a pentagon. We had a lot of fun exploring these concepts on our geoboards as well as making some fun art.
This last week, we played with hexiamonds (using six triangles to make shapes) and found there are twelve possible shapes. We named them (of course!) and then explored them a bit more by playing a card game where you can play a card only if it means moving just one triangle into another position to create the new shape. This was tricky as we needed to flip and rotate to make sure we could do it.
We also began playing with tangrams and will continue to this week. We created our own set of tans and found we can create all seven pieces from one square. We explored making animals and people as well as other geometric shapes (squares, triangles, trapezoids, rectangles) with our tans by using 1, 2, 3, and so on....of our pieces. Such great problem solving, perseverance when there isn't a quick result, and wonderful group work as we help each other..
Our tangrams have led us into the world of tangram theater...fun! We each made a picture with our tangram. We had a polar bear, ostrich, bunny, kitty, candle, rocket car, and a fish. We made a group story together arranging the tiles as we told the story. All I can say as that the ostrich and bunny had an unfortunate day at the grocery story but luckily ends well! Check out our story in our room when you get the chance! The kids are excited to write more stories on their own or with a partner or two. Keep your eyes out for these collaborative creations!
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In Writing Workshop, we have begun working with word choice (one of the six traits of writing) and thinking about how we can make our writing even more interesting. We practiced by turning plain sentences -rice cake sentences (The dog was hungry.) into salsa sentences (The cute little puppy dog was so hungry he scarfed down the entire Thanksgiving turkey.). The kids even had me put on my safety glasses (another story I'll share sometime!) in case any words flew off the pages.
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We said goodbye to our younger buddies before Winter Break and hello to a new younger friend! Such excitement! Now during Buddy Reading, a younger friend reads a book with a older buddy coaching and then a older buddy get to read a book aloud. I had to share this picture, as one day these three older boys did not have their younger buddies. They found each other and were taking turns reading from a book at their level and helping each other with the words. YES!
We have begun moving into the world of crystals! We made a couple of crystal solutions (from minerals only!) before we left on break and were amazed at what we found when we returned. We let them sit for a couple more weeks and will really investigate them this week. We did learn all about geodes. It is incredible to think that when we crack a geode open we are the first to ever lay eyes on it! We loved what we found! We also enjoyed doing some creative writing with pretending to find what we thought was a geode but when we cracked it open we found.....
Last week we spent our afternoons learning about Martin Luther King Jr. We shared what we knew and then did a bit of research on our own in small group to find out more information (and even got to watch a video and parts of his speech!). Everyone decided that if they were alive during his time that they would be right next to him marching and protesting! On Friday, we had a birthday celebration where we shared our cards we made for him, sang happy birthday (the bouncy one, of course!) and had is favorite pie, pecan.
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In the spirit of service, some of us spent our Monday off, with a day ON working to restore habitat in the Green Cove wetland.
We spent three hours planting native trees, mulching, cutting and digging up blackberries. We also did a bit of water testing.
Have a wonderful week!
This month we have focused on cooperation and helping others. We are so incredibly helpful and cooperative, every time I turn around someone has something to add to our poster of examples of us using cooperation in our classroom and lives or helping others. A few things that are on the list…”getting math supplies for a partner math game while another gets pencils,” helping to make breakfast for my family,” “cleaning up our classroom,””holding the heavy outside door open for our younger friends." The kids thought it would be fun using cooperation to build human pyramids! 
SNOW DAY!! Now this 
We also learned a bit about Yellowstone and geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, and hot springs. The kids created their own experiments to model each one. They gave me the list of supplies they might need, I put them out and presto a bubbling mud pot made of coco powder, baking soda and vinegar and a geyser with baking soda and vinegar and a lid with a straw poking through that really let the geyser blow!
We had our second trip to the food bank this last Friday. WOW! These kiddos get things done! Yeah! It was 45 minutes of nonstop work as kids opened boxes, took out the fruit bowls and put them in the crates. As they worked with their younger buddies they developed different systems to help each other out or to be more efficient. A couple of pairs joined up as one tore the packaging off, one snapped the fruit bowls apart and the two others put them in the crate - phew! 
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