Thursday, February 23, 2017

Woo-woo! All Aboard!

Look at the trains we made after reading stories about them! They're made from cardstock, with toilet paper roll wheels. Some kids made an engine and a car, and hitched them together with pipecleaners!

We read And the Train Goes by William Bee, Steam train, dream train by Sherri Duskey Rinker, and of course, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. I think I can, I think I can....

Saturday, February 18, 2017

There's No Place Like Home

This week, we read stories about houses and homes. Then we stuffed a paper bag with newspapers and made it look like a house. Windows, doors, chimneys - lots of different elements were free cut and glued. Some added cotton snow to their roofs or cotton smoke to their chimneys!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Moon & Stars

Since the moon is particularly bright and beautiful this time of year, last week we read about the moon and the stars! In Max and the Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper, we read of Max, on his way home from his grandfather's house, watching the full moon from the car. Moongame by Frank Asch was about Bear playing hide-and-seek with the moon. Kitten, in Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, thought the moon was a big bowl of milk and she went chasing after it! Our last book, The Moon Inside by Sandra Feder, was about Ella, who was afraid of the dark. 
We covered paper plates with aluminum foil to make a bright and shiny full moon (or a crescent!). Then we colored stars on both sides, then decorated them with tiny stars, shiny stars. We hung them from the moon after poking holes and threading yarn through them. Some of us gave the full moon a face!
We can hang these at home and see the "moon" all day long!

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Crazy 8s: Funny Money

During our recent Crazy 8's Math Club at New Hampton Community School, we investigated coins. We found several different ways to make the same amount using various combinations of coins. We sequenced coins by their dates. We even compared the values of some coins with their weights! Finally, we all "bought" sparkly pencils and tiny little playing cards by figuring out the correct combinations of number of coins and amount.