Perimeter and Area Superheroes & Poem

This week we wrapped up our study of perimeter and area with some superhero action.

I gave each student one sheet of graph paper and told them that they needed to cut out two legs and then two arms of the same size, a body and head. It was their choice how small or large they wanted to make them. I then gave them a white sheet of paper to glue their pieces together and add a backdrop to really give it that superhero pizazz. 

Throughout the week, we also reviewed this poem that my intern and I worked together to create to help students remember the difference between the two. I had them do TPR (body movements) to go along with "sus lados has de sumar" (fingers make the shape of a square) and "contar los lados debes hacer" (make square counting motion). 

Egg Measuring

We did a little Easter related activity today during math to review for our upcoming assessment on measurement. This "Egg Measurements" activity I created made for the perfect tie-in! Click on the title page image to snag a copy. It is in English and Spanish!

I set up rulers on one table, measuring tapes on a another, and the one lowly scale I have on another in my classroom and set my students to work. It worked out for my kids just to walk from place to place, but you could do it however works for your students. I also gave each of my students their own individual hard-boiled egg. You could partner them up for it, group them, etc. We only had one egg casuality (after all my ranting and raving about caution), so I thought they did pretty well!

Here is what one of my students completed pages looked like:

After we finished our little measurement center rotations, we continued with our activity by measuring capacity. I enlisted the assistance of my students in measuring out the correct amounts of vinegar and water to add to some Easter egg dying cups! When it was prepared we dyed the eggs we used for our activity, and each student got to take their beautifully colored egg home!

Final thing- I had a request for the writing paper I utilized for my Spring Narrative Kites yesterday. I am glad that you enjoyed them! Click here if you'd like a copy!

Happy Easter!

"Super" Gallon Man and Spanish Word Work Freebie

I know most of you are familiar with good ole' gallon man. But this is "super" gallon man....so he is slightly cooler ;). I actually got this idea from Amber over at Aventures of a Third Grade Teacher and tweaked and translated it for use in my classroom! If you would like a copy in English, click here to visit Amber's TpT store. It's a free download. I will say that I did change the head and form of my body a little bit in the Spanish version. If you would like the Spanish version, go ahead and click here and it will look exactly like the one above. (I apologize the document isn't beautiful...I scanned it in on one of our copiers today as all I had was hard copies!- It'll work though :))

This week during our word work block we are focusing on the suffixes "-ción/-sión". These are can be super tricky for my kids as they both sound the same! As with almost all of our word work activities, we started on Monday with an open word sort. I gave the kids a variety of words with the focus pattern, but did not give them the categories yet. They chose how they wanted to organize them and reflected on why they did so. Then, today, I gave them the categories, and they resorted them this time doing a closed sort by organizing the words below the correct heading of "-ción" or "-sión". Throughout the rest of the week, my kids use the same words to do a variety of other sorts as well. They love them and particularly with letter patterns such as these they are perfect because they are seeing the words over and over again. 

After my kids cut out their words the first day, I just have them keep them in a plastic bag on which I write their class number and they keep it in their word work folder all week. Then on Friday, they take the bag home and are able to utilize the sort at home as a resource for further practice.

Being as I am in a dual language classroom, I always incorporate comprehension activities within my word work block as well. Because sometimes the kids do not know what the words mean that we are studying- and this is equally as important! Today, to focus on the comprehension component, I gave each of my students a card. The card either contained a picture or a word with our focus letter pattern. The students had to find their partner who had the corresponding card. When all had finished finding their match the students presented their words and pictures to the class. I then put this activity in my pocket chart center so that they could continue to practice.

You can pick up a free copy of the individual student word sort as well as the class picture/word comprehension activity we did by clicking on the image below! 

By the way, does anyone know how to use accents on TpT? I tried to use them for the title of this document and it went all funky monkey on me... It bugs me that the title I posted is not grammatically correct!

Measurement, Paragraphs, and Green Kids!

This week we have been focusing on measuring area and perimeter and nailing this concept down! Today we had a little fun with it. I gave all of the kids a piece of centimeter graph paper and they had to create their name out of the paper. Then they glued all of the letters to a piece of construction paper and had to find the area and perimeter of each of the letters in their name. I must say- I was a little nervous as to how difficult it would be for them to visualize the letters in "square" form. But i was beyond impressed- most of them could do it better than me! Here are a few examples:

During "Writer's Workshop" today we did a bridging activity. For those not familiar with the "dual" world, after each unit, in a dual classroom, one may do a bridge to connect the concepts already learned in one language to the next. For instance, I just finished teaching a unit completely in Spanish about the 4 types of sentences and how to use them to write great introductions and conclusions. Thus, today, because I had finished the unit, we did a bridge lesson in which I connected the content they already knew to the English language. First, we bridged the vocabulary ie: declarativa/declarative, imperativa/imperative. As you may notice, the words appear very similar. Those are cognates- words that sound the same and mean the same thing in two languages. My kids love finding those during our bridging lesson, and they are so important to point out as it helps strengthen that linguistic connection!  

After bridging the vocabulary and concepts, I usually do a little activity to go along with the vocabulary we have just bridged in the other language. To do this today, I gave each of students a strip that had a sentence on it. The sentence was part of a 5 sentence paragraph on a specific topic. They had to locate their friends around the room that had the other sentences in their paragraph, and then work together to put them in order. 

After all of the groups had put their paragraphs in order. We took an in depth look at the intro and concluding sentences of each paragraph. The groups had to read them aloud and then as a class, we determined which type of sentence it was using that new vocabulary we just bridged in English! If you think this activity could be useful for your class, click on the image below for a free copy of the paragraph strips I used!

Finally, we spent all this week learning about what it means to be "green" as part of our science/social studies combined units on goods/resources and natural resource conservation. At the beginning of the week, we discussed what it meant to be "green". I had the students do a little schema writing before hand and asked them to write down what they thought it meant.-whoo hilarious! Had everything from aliens to wearing green clothes and dying our hair!

Needless to say now I think/hope they have a much better idea. Each day I read them a different book about a way in which we can be more "green". After reading they completed a reflection sheet to add to add to their "How to be a "green" Kid" poster we created the first day. Here are some of the finish products. (They don't look quite as cute because I had to block out their photos...but you get the idea!)

I plan to finish getting this combined unit (in English and Spanish) up for you guys during my break this week! Just need to add some finishing touches!

And Spring Break has officially begun! Anyone else off this week? Have any exciting plans?

Nothing like a little math art...

This week we have been reviewing a variety of the concepts covered in our latest math chapter (for those of you who use Everyday Math- we just finished Ch. 7). As part of our review we have been having a little fun and doing some art and math combo projects.

The first, I found in this Math Art Projects and Activities book, that I borrowed from one of my colleagues. We have been studying basic multiplication using arrays, and I found this really cute constellation project to reinforce this. I gave each student a different multiplication problem, a piece of black paper, and a star shaped sponge and they went to town. They look perfect hanging from our ceiling- like a little starry night :)

We have also been working on measurement- specifically using inches and centimeters as well as a ruler as a tool for drawing a straight line. I have done this "Elastic Man" project in the past. The students must follow the number of inches listed on the activity sheet to create their bendable friend. However this year, I took it a step further, and had my students write stories during our Writer's Workshop time about their "Elastic Man/Woman" as well. They got quite creative with them. Check out a few below!

What types of math and art combo creations do you do in your classroom? I would love to hear your ideas!