Measurement, Simple Machines and Dance

Today we looked at the math expectations for measurement and created an anchor on how to measure things.  Take a look!

In Science, we read the book "How Do You Lift a Lion" (don't recommend it!) and explored how simple machines help make work easier.  Great book!

In Gym, we began to perform our dances that we have been working on for the past few weeks.  Stay tuned for some videos that will follow later this week:)
We are finishing our 'Best Part of Me' and narratives in language.  Some of us have begun to turn our narratives into books using the Book Creator app.

Incredibox and The Best Part of Me

We continued to make music using Incredibox.  Some of us were able to upload to our blogs and you can check out our compositions here!
In Science, we went on a Simple Machine scavenger hunt using newspaper flyers.  The most difficult simple machine to find was the pulley.  The wheel and axle was the easiest...there were LOTS of examples in the flyers:)

What a Wonderful World

Inspired by the song "What a Wonderful World", we took imaginary trips to beautiful places all over the globe!

Created with Padlet

Simple Machine Sites

Below you will find a lot of great sites about Simple Machines.  They include games, videos and interactive activities. Enjoy!

Click here and here

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Allergy Alert, Inferring and Simple Machines

Please do not send in hummus to our classroom as we have a child who is allergic to sesame (which is sometimes in hummus).
This morning we had our Gospel Value Assembly.  The Gospel Value for April is Stewardship for Creation. Congratulations to Holly and Van who won for the month of March- Faith.

A BIG happy birthday to Jiwar who turned 8 today!

Today we listened (and looked at) to the story 'Just a Dream'. Walter is a litterbug who does not appreciate the beauty of nature or understand his role in keeping the planet healthy.  In the book he goes on a journey that shows what could happen to the Earth if humans are not more careful.  We did a lot of inferring to figure out what was going on in the story.  We used the picture clues and our schema to explain the pictures in the story.  A perfect book for Earth Week.

Today we dramatized some simple machines and our audience had to guess what we were.  We will finish this up on Friday:) Lots of fun! Here is a link for a great site about Simple Machines!

Inferring

Please wear RED YELLOW or ORANGE tomorrow for Earth Week. In Language we continue to explore inferring. Good readers use the inferring strategy to figure out what is going on using clues in text (or video) and their schema (background knowledge). We read the story 'Tuesday' (total coincidence that it was actually TUESDAY) and did a lot of inferring about what actually happened in the story as there are only a few words! We did a fantastic job!

We also explored using the inferring strategy with the short Pixar film 'Pigeon:Impossible'. We were able to figure out the man's profession, why he held up a bagel and many other things. The movie has NO talking so we rocked inferring AGAIN!

Subtraction with Regrouping, Earth Week, Incredibox and Comparing Solids

@mrsaddison2 Tessa, I'm doing some research right now! Your question makes me wonder: what makes a number a number? pic.twitter.com/jXZ0BYO2d0

— Math Monkey (@Math_Monkey1) April 18, 2016

Please bring in your plastic grocery bags.  St. Cecilia is competing in the Plastic Bag Grab Challenge. We will be counting up the bags we have collected and comparing the number with other classes. The collected bags will then be brought to the proper recycling depot. Thanks in advance!

In music we played around with Incredibox to compose some songs. A few of the students were able to share their music to Twitter and their blogs.  I am sure they would love you to comment on their compositions!
We continue to work on subtraction with regrouping using base ten.  Please continue to practice at home or online (there are many free games available!).  Today we compared two 3D figures to see how they are the same and how they are different.  We came up with a lot of ways to compare the two figures.  Well done!  We remembered to compare using geometric properties.

Earth Week Activities at St. Cecilia

Comparing 3D Figures and Kahoot!

In Science, we played a game on Kahoot to practice movement vocabulary. If you want to test your knowledge, you can play the game here:)  Enjoy!  You have to beat MM who was the high scorer for this round.
In Math, we compared 3D figures and shared our findings with the group.  Tomorrow we will continue to share our discoveries.  We are getting really good at knowing the difference between a prism and a pyramid!

Move a Wooden Block

Addition/Subtraction Games, Movement, Dance and Narratives

Here is a great site to practice your addition and subtraction facts!
Math Playground

We made a video about ways we move.  Check it out!

Today we had a challenge to move a wooden block off a sheet of paper using objects in a bin. Stay tuned for videos of our challenge!

Collaborate to make a block move

Today we listened to the story 'Giraffes Can't Dance' before beginning our dance unit.  We had many ideas about the author's message but the main one was that everyone can dance if they find the right music!

Scholastic Interactive: "Giraffes Can't Dance" from Kat Llewellyn on Vimeo.

As we begin to get ready for writing our own narratives, we listened to 'The Best Story' by Eileen Spinelli.  Some of us are going to write a mystery stories and others are definitely going to write an adventure.  We will begin to write our rough drafts using Google Docs on Wednesday:)

Burkina Faso, All About Nduku and Movement

Ryan's Well Foundation school challenge for this year was to help raise funds to provide clean water and sanitation for the people in Burkina Faso.  A few weeks ago, students were asked to research an aspect of the country in Africa and post it to our Burkina Faso padlet.  Take a look at all the things we learned about this nation!

Created with Padlet

Today, we finished our Shared Writing of an Adventure Story.  The main characters are Abigail and Rose.  They are both trapped on a deserted island! We needed to make sure our story had a beginning, middle and an end (and we NEVER put THE END in our story!).  You will notice that we used a Shape Go Map template and Google Docs to get our thoughts down on paper before we began to write our narrative. Here it is! Enjoy!
In Science we continue to investigate movement and brainstormed objects that demonstrate different forms of movement.

We learned a lot about Nduku's family today.  Here is her Google Slideshow presentation!

Drumming, Prisms/Pyramids and Directions

We were lucky to participate in a wonderful drum demonstration that included a lot of hands on work with real African drums.  The video is long but it shows how much fun we had with Mr. Williams!
In Math, we investigated the properties of prisms and pyramids.  Here is what we noticed!

What We Have Been Up To!

In Religion, we are learning that the Mass is a sacrifice and are exploring our faith.
In Language, we continue to look at writing narratives.  Today we watched a short video and used it to inspire our writing.  Together we used Google Docs to organize our story.  Tomorrow we will take our narrative organizer and write an awesome story together!

Here is the short video we used to help us write a story:

Tomorrow we write the story!

Our anchor chart

How can we describe 3D Figures?

We are continuing to explore our Movement unit in Science.  Today, we had to draw a picture using position words.  It was harder than you would think! In Math we are exploring 3D Figures at our stations, as well as addition/subtraction with regrouping.

This is what we have come up with so far!