Kara's Happy Classroom: April 2016

Fraction Circle Practice

My first graders had some great practice with hands on fraction circles today. Very simple to put together, and everyone gets to have some concrete experience with fractions.

1. I cut out three circles of the same size but different colors for each student.
2. Cut one in 1/2, one in 1/4's, and one in 1/3's.
3. I cut out square cards of a different color and labeled them for each fraction.
4. Laminate, and bag each set.
5. Students assemble each circle and have to correctly label it.

Ant Colony Intruder: The Bumble Flower Beetle

I put together a really cool ant colony today for my class. Awesome! I found it at the Goodwill for $10 and it was totally worth it. It has all these different pods connected by tubes. I filled them with soil, grass, sand, and some moss. For water I soaked cotton balls, and for food I did apples, and cinnamon toast crunch.

After a lot of looking I finally found a ton of ants under some bricks in my garden. I must have looked about 6 years old out there with my spoon and tweezers. I was able to find a few of the larvae, but boy those little guys are quick at hauling them away as soon as you get close.

I added the ants to the colony, the kids thought it was amazing. About an hour or two later I glance at the main pod and there is this huge furry beetle crawling around in there! Aghh! How did I miss him? It was hard to tell if the ants were attacking it, or if they were attacking him. I looked it up and I'm pretty sure its a bumble flower beetle. A furry ground beetle that looks like a bee. They are vegetarian, but I'm sure their jaws could do some damage to my poor little ants. I am going to try to take him out tomorrow, but it won't be easy to disconnect it without the whole thing tumbling. By the end of the day I didn't see many ants left in there. Don't worry, I trucked out to my yard again and abducted some more.

School Bulletin Boards

I'm not much for bulletin boards. Typically, I do them in the fall, and never get around to changing them. This year, I was determined to be better about having fun boards that I could realistically get done! The trick for me was getting them ready in the summer before school starts! I used poster board, the letter cutters, and laminated what I could so the boards would be ready, and I could just add to them. The best part is, I can re-use them next year yay!!!

September, Sailing Back to School Board:

The back was ready, all I had to add was the boats and names. Oh yes, I used velcro to put them up. Tape never seems to work.

Next is my fall board for October: Who's hiding in the pumpkin patch?

Sorry about the glare, but as its laminated, its hard to get a good pic. The kids made the pumpkins, I was planning on those hanging green things to be cute little curls made on a pencil, but they came out a little funny. For their pictures I brought in a straw hat, a tiny bale of hay from the craft store and some face paint. My plan was to do little scarecrow noses on them, but some of them had other requests and I just went with it. One of them has a black widow on his nose!!

December, for Christmas we did "Joy to the World" with a caroling reindeer:

The kids had a ball with the glitter glue, decorating their trees.

January, "Our School is cool" snow globe, and snowman board

First I had them pose with their coats on, pretending they were standing with a snowman. Then I gave them the snowman, and little bits of colored paper for them to decorate their snowmen. I also emptied out my hole punch so they could glue snowflakes on. I covered them with plastic plates to look like snow globes. I had a little trouble getting the plates to stay. Tape and white glue did not work. Hot glue did though, and they loved their globes!

Animal Habitats Project

We had a great time in our 1st and 2nd grade, learning about animal habitats.

We learned about 9 different biomes using picture cards with information about each habitat on the back. Desert, Savanna, Prairie, Pond, Shoreline, Tundra, Ocean, Rainforest, and Forest. Then we talked about how each animal belongs in a certain place. A polar bear could never live in the desert! I cut out pictures of animals, (about 3 for each one) and as a class we matched each animal to its correct biome.

Animal Habitats Bundle

We applied what we learned with an in class activity where students had pictures to color, cut out, and glue on to appropriate biomes.

They also completed a diorama project, and simple research page. I assigned each student a habitat diorama to create out of a shoebox. They also had to choose an animal from their habitat and complete a research sheet.

Here are the assignment pages:

Get assignment pages free here: Project Assignment and Animal Research
They did such a great job, I was so proud of them. One of my students had so much fun on his project, his mother told me he has been working on three more!