Groundhog's Day, Super Bowl, Symbols and Some Double Digit Math

We accomplished quite a bit today!  First we predicted whether or not the Groundhog would be discovering his shadow tomorrow morning.  I made a chart for students to collect their information.  Then students simply colored a groundhog and added it to the chart.  Love the cute groundhogs from Sharing Kindergarten has a really cute Groundhog's Day Unit....and it's FREE! 

Then we predicted who we thought would be winning the Super Bowl.  Because Patriotic is one of our American Symbol words, my class replaced Patriots with Patriotics:-).   BTW both teams are patriotic due to their red, white, and blue coloring.

So far the Giants are expected to win, with three more votes than the Patriots.











Our math unit is currently working with adding double digit numbers.  First of all, I won a set of super cute posters from, Emily@ Second Grade Silliness.  We refer to them everyday!  Today, we went on a double digit math problem scavenger hunt.  Tape 10 problems around the room and students have to find the problem, copy the problem, and solve the problem...so simple, but so engaging!  Thank you Amy@ Step into Second Grade for the great unit!  (She also has a  President's Unit that is adorable and FREE!)

Finally today, we played American Symbol memory.  I printed and laminated cards from OopseyDaisy's blog and we had a fun time making symbol matches.  We also played a different version where one partner had to give clues for the symbol they were thinking about and the other partner had to guess which one it was.

Happy Wednesday,
Laurie

Lady Liberty

We have been living in Lady Liberty world this week.  Each day we read a little bit, from the book Lady Liberty.  Amazing illustrations and the pages switch between each of the people who had a part in dreaming, creating, financing, and building the famous statue.

We have also been viewing live Liberty cams.  This website is so fun.  Live cams from famous places all around the earth.  We have been viewing the ones from the Statue of Liberty. 

There are so many great units out there in the blogosphere!  U is for U.S.A. from www.oopseydaisyblog.com, America Math and Literacy Fun,  American Centers and More are three of the units we have been using for tons of fun.  As well as our GLAD units.

Here are the step by step directions, I had students follow:

Steps 1, 2, and 3

Steps 4,5, and 6.  Sorry about the orientation!

We used oil pastels and drew some step by step drawings of a close up view of Lady Liberty.  Thank you We Heart Art for the drawing help.  My kiddos said they looked like the Starbucks girl:-)

We also wanted to find out how the Statue of Liberty turned green, so we put pennies in vinegar and salt and left them to soak overnight.  LOVE the trays.  They are from IKEA and good for everything....painting, putting out group supplies...love love!

Unfortunately, the vinegar smell has taken over the classroom.

 Finally we measured the length of the Statue of Liberty's foot.  (25 feet!)  Then we predicted if our class, standing shoulder to shoulder, would be equal to, less than, or greater than the length of the foot.

Standing right next to it, to see how much space he was using.

All lined up, testing our predictions!

And recording our data and results.

And we learned Portlandia is the second largest free standing copper statue!  (Liberty the first, of course)  And to view it, it is just a 20 minute drive into Portland.

Happy Thursday,
Laurie

My Country Tis of Thee

Quilts are so exquisite.  Quilting is a talent I so wish I had.  I decided to incorporate quilting into our American Symbols Unit.  First we explored the world of quilting.  There are SO many different kinds.  We learned that a square can be cut into two rectangles or two triangles. Then we looked at our pattern for making a Churn-Dash quilt square.  We used to have Bridges as our math curriculum and the paper quilts that came up every so often were fun and this seemed like a great way add quilting to our learning.

First we had to decide what colors we would use for each part of the quilt square and then count out our pieces.

 Then we folded and cut our squares into rectangles or triangles.

 And glued them onto our pattern.

 Finished!

After we made our Churn-Dash squares we used blank white squares to add information and pictures of an American symbol.  I had the class work in groups of 2-3, so when we finished we had 10 different 9-patch quilts.

The Abraham Lincoln quilt

The Bald Eagle Quilt

The Patriotic Quilt

Happy Thursday,
Laurie

Odd, Even, and some American Symbols

I first found these on Pinterest, but they were pinned from The Teacher Wife.  We made our even street one day and then odd next.  This week we are going to add bicycles, tricycles, and four legged animals to work on skip counting.

Windmill  Forklift House

Shape House

Swirly Houses

We also worked on some introductory American symbol charts.  I put a picture of an American symbol on each paper.  Students wrote what the knew or wondered on the paper, and then rotated to the next poster.

I love it when they are so engaged! 
Laurie