Measurement Mini-Unit

I didn't take nearly enough pictures during out "measurement-mania" unit, and I really wish I had taken tons. My kids loved measurement and seemed to grasp it very well as it was connected to hands-on, real world experiences.  Their favorites were measuring length with flowers that they painted, using cheez-its to learn more about area, and measuring "big foot" with various measurement tools.  "Big-foot" was actually just one of Mr. Perry's shoes that we used to measure the length of our feet.  They also enjoyed seeing how tiny Solomon's and Christian's are in comparison to theirs and especially Mr. Perry's.  Surprisingly, I had a few students whose feet were the same size as mine or slightly larger (a couple of very tall boys)!

Every day we discussed a different type of measurement and the tools that we use to gain information about it.    I printed the pages that are in the document below, laminated them, and used sticky notes to record information on them.  We began with  the why, when, how, and what's of measurement.  A great introduction to this is to bring in pairs of shoes that are too small or too tight.  Measurement is such an important skill for students because time, temperature, length, weight, capacity, perimeter, and area occur in every day life more often than we realize.

Measurement Mania

Something to Shout About!

This week we're our phonemic awareness skill are "ou" and "ow".  Here are a few cute ideas that my class has enjoyed so far.  The book in the picture above is full of short poems which are perfect for primary learners.  They're short, funny, and have fabulous illustrations.  Today we talked about how April is national poetry month, and we promised to read at least one great poem every single day for the rest of the year.

Here's a copy of our poem of the week.

my cow_poem

I love this book because it is so comprehensive.  It has word families, consonant blends, digraphs, vowel combinations, prefixes and suffixes, and short skill assessments.  This week we're making the "ouch" and "own" books.  This is also a great tool for students because they store them in a ziploc bag inside their book boxes.  They can study their weekly spelling words and get accurate spellings for words that they're not sure about.  

I also love this book because it has so many open ended word sorts.  There are lots of ways to use this book with students of all levels.  I can adjust the parameters of the sort for my students depending on their phonemic awareness strengths and reading abilities.  My higher students like to use these as a word challenge to see how many different ways the words can be sorted.

On Monday we made these sunflowers and brainstormed lots of  "ow" words.  

We also read this book to learn more about the life cycle of  asunflower.  

Today we focused more on "ou."  We read "Arthur's Boo Boo's," and then each student completed a 

text-to-self connection about an injury or "owie" that they've had.  Most of the students are still working on theirs, but here is an example.  

I think they look so dang cute, and I guess I never really knew how much a neon colored band-aid could put a smile on a little one's face!

We're working on measurement in math right now so we got those sunflowers out again.  Each student's flower was just a little different.  They all had different lengths for their stem, petals, and leaves.  They measured their flowers and other items from around the room using snap cubes.  

We also painted these flowers for more measurement practice tomorrow.  We'll use paper clips, bear counters, snap cubes, color tiles, and crayons to measure these tomorrow.  

 

It's amazing how much six and seven year olds love to paint!

Tomorrow we're having a "sour" taste test with sour jelly beans, sour straws, and pickles. We'll graph the and analyze our results.  I can't wait to snap pictures of those cute little "sour" faces!

14 Days of Love! (day 8)

You can use this activity as a measurement activity for math. After the students make their prediction, they can measure and record their actual answer.  I also included a place to write in tens/ones and odd or even.  There is also a place for them to illustrate.  

 I have been really into cupcakes lately, and I'm making lots of cupcake "stuff."  Here are some pictures of things that I purchased recently for the class.

I got a really great science idea from this book about colors.  I recently made a "Valentine Science" unit for TpT.  This book is from Kohl's, and it's in the same section as the Eric Carle books right now.  All proceeds go to kids!

 

I also picked up these nesting cupcakes.  I'm hoping to use them with a capacity lesson!

I picked up this little cute little cupcake sign for the front door (later today I'm hoping to post pics with a classroom tour so that will probably be one of the first ones you see)!

Last I picked up a "giant" cupcake with a lid.  I think I'm going to keep prizes and treats in it, and make a sign that says "Caught ya being sweet!"

cupcake measurement