Friday Flashback: Geometry & Descriptive Writing

A blur.  That's how I would describe this week.  Not sure why I felt as though I was barely staying ahead this week, but I plan on tackling that this weekend so that next week's not the same! ;)

We started several new units this week, so here's a little look....

Math
We started our Geometry Unit....I pretty much start most of my math units with food, so this one was no different!
The first couple days were spent on plane shapes.  We created pretzel plane shapes.  Students quickly realized that they would have to break some pretzel sticks in half in order to create some of the shapes.  We also made up a little jingle to help the kiddos remember the names of the shapes (I wish I had taken a video of them performing it with the motions!!)....maybe I can have them perform it again next week!

We started by placing our hands on our hips to create a triangle using our elbows (after reading The Greedy Triangle and discovering this was the triangle's favorite spot).  We sang {rapped}...

Plane Shapes, Plane Shapes, Plane, Plane, Plane, Plane, Plane Shapes (squishing our hands FLAT)
3 sides is a triangle (hands on hips to form a triangle with elbows)
4 sides quadrilateral (flashing 4 fingers in the air lots of times to remind us there are LOTS of different quadrilaterals)
5 sides is a pentagon (holding up a 5 and then wrapping our fingers around a pen to write)
6 sides is a hexagon (holding up 6 fingers and then making an X since both SIX and HEXagon both have this rare letter)
8 sides is an octagon (holding up 8 fingers and then turning them upside down and pretending to be an octopus with 8 legs)
Plane Shapes, Plane Shapes, Plane, Plane, Plane, Plane, Plane Shapes (squishing our hands FLAT)

The last few days of the week were spent learning about solids.  We created a Solid Shapes Book as we learned the number of faces, edges, and vertices, we learned to sketch these shapes and found these shapes in the real world.

Finally, students were given toothpicks and gumdrops and asked to create 3-D shapes using a particular number of each.  It was fun to watch the "aha" moments as they discovered which shapes they should be making (for example, at first they were given 8 toothpicks and 5 gumdrops....they had to discover that they could create a PYRAMID with those).

Descriptive Writing
We pulled together some of our previously taught skills (adjectives, adverbs, onomatopoeia) and added in a couple of new concepts (similes, personification) to help us with one of our first descriptive writing projects.....snow globes!!
I know, I know...everyone does the snow globe writing, but it really lends itself to a great descriptive piece!! AND, I just love the 3-D look of this display. ;)  

**UPDATE  1/13** To create the snow globes, I gave each student one of the snow globe templates from my descriptive writing unit (it's coming SOON).  They decorated it as they wished and then I laid a handful of fake snow (from the craft store) in the center.  Then I hot-glued a clear plastic plate upside-down on top of the snow globe part.  This keeps the fake snow inside and gives it a 3-D look!

One of my students walked out to the hall as he was leaving for the day and suddenly stopped, staring at his display.  Then he exclaimed, "Perfection! Mine is just perfect!"  Hahaha....love those kids!  This little ditty will be in the descriptive writing unit that I'm putting the finishing touches on this weekend.
We also created our Trashcan Thesauruses to really help us with better word choice during this unit.  Students selected words that they wanted to use less in their writing and found synonyms to replace them with!  They will store these in their writing folders and we'll add to them all year.
The next project in this unit will be centered around....MONSTERS!!  You know I had to squeeze them in there somewhere! :)  I'll show you what we're doing with them next week!

I can't wait to see what your class did this week....link up below to share!



 

18 comments

  1. Hi Amanda! Thanks for hosting once again :)

    I LOVE your Thesaurus Trashcans idea - SO cute! Definitely going to need to try that one soon.

    Also, I got very excited when I say your snow globe writing because we're doing that next week! Great minds think alike :)

    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

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  2. I also did the snow globe writing with my students this week. :) Turned them into multi-paragraph essays.... Thanks for hosting!

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  3. I really like the snow globe project! So cute! Do you have the snow globe sheets available to print or for sale? I would like to use them in my classroom! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. SO much fun!
    Sandra
    Sweet Times in First
    sweettimesinfirst@gmail.com

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  10. I like your snow globes! How did you make those?? I'd love to use your idea next year since we just wrote about our life in a snow globe this week.

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  11. ah! I just love you! We will be doing that writing this week. We are having a competition at school decorating a winter wonderland and I need to win...know what I mean!? haha!
    I'm linking up soon! I am missing my windows live writer on the mac...
    Rachel

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  12. Their snow globes turned out so cute! It really IS such a great writing activity!!

    I LOVE those trash can thesauruses! I have not seen that before! Sooooooo cute!! Can I steal that idea?

    Have a great weekend!! We did a Friday post, but I wouldn't call it the best activities from the week, more like the wackiest, so I won't link up this time. But maybe next time! :O)

    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

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  13. Yeah! Your ideas you are using for your geometry unit are just in time - I'm doing that next week! Thanks for sharing!
    Sara

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  14. Your geometry ideas are so cute and I love the song. I'm a huge fan of anything with hand motions!! Your trashcan thesaurus is also darling. Inspired as always ;0)

    Jessica
    Teach on a Limb

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  15. I can't wait for your descriptive unit. I am starting the snow globe writing next week and other than the actual craft, I have no clue how I want to structure it. Also, I'm loving the thesaurus trashcan.

    Jennifer
    Darling Little Learners

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  16. How did you make your snow globes? I want to make them with my students. THYordan@aol.com

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  18. We are going to be making those snowglobes this week also:) :) I'm loving your geometry unit! Going on the wishlist :)
    Maribel

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