Day 8- SECRET PROJECT almost done!

I apologize for getting this post a day late. I didn't get home until late yesterday. Let's see if I can remember yesterday...

We began our day in the gym where the kids learned about Mr. Burney's rules and regulations for PE. Our specials time is currently at 8:00, but Mr. Evans assures me that it will change soon since there are still a lot of kids in the cafeteria eating breakfast at that time.

After PE, we went to the room and revisited our KWL on Royalty. I remembered to take the chart home, and I did a little research. You would not believe how many royals are in the world today! Kings, Queens, Emperors, Sultans, Sheiks; you name it!
I made a Power Point to share with the class, and you can check it out HERE, plus you can check out this website for a complete list of the Royals of the World! (the information on the PPT, I got from this site, and Google)

http://www.nobledynasty.com/worldroyalfamilies.htm

I chose to use Queen Elizabeth II's picture for the link because when I went researching, I could find more answers to my students' questions in her information. In a brilliant marketing strategy, the British Royal family has photo documented everything! Palaces, jewels, clothes, paintings and sculptures, and the stables! The students and I got to take a virtual tour of the stables! If you want to take a tour of the many homes of the Queen, check out this website here...

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/

I think the kids had a great time Ohhing and Aahhing over the pictures. We also looked into the King of Morocco and his family

 And the Emperor of Japan. Did you know that Japan has the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world? That's pretty cool!

 After the Power Point, we finished our chart by filling in what we learned. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before I left. I'll get it Monday! I can say that a lot of what they learned revolved around the stables. They really were impressed with the horses!

From Royalty to the alphabet... we worked on our SECRET PROJECT and created illustrations for our book. My soldiers really took this project seriously. They worked very hard to make sure everything is perfect.

 

Their job was to illustrate an animal and write, in their best handwriting, the information about that animal. They did a great job. I collected them, laminated it all, and will finish the binding on Monday before our Library time. Here it is.

I made an invitation for Mr. Evans, and here is yours!

You, the Parents of General Delk's Army, are invited to a Book Dedication!

When: Monday at 9:30

Where: CHES Library

We are dedicating our ABC Animals book to the Library and Mr. Evans will be the first person to read it all put together. There will be video of the event! 

After lunch we worked on math. We are using a different math adoption from last year; this year we have enVision Math. I like it, the kids really seem to like it, so far we have had no problems with it. However, yesterday we seemed to hit our first snag. The first set of lessons revolve around the students being able to make groups of objects, from 1-12. We have been practicing turning objects into numbers. * some of my students even came back to school after one lesson and told me that they magically turned things around the house into numbers! I was so proud!

So, I decided to let them play a game after Friday's lesson. The game involved dominoes, a pencil and paper. The students were to choose a domino, write down the numbers in a math equation, and solve the problem by counting the dots on the domino. Here is my example.

We practiced in the ELMO (fancy over-head projector), I put an example on the board for reference, I thought we were set! I was very, very wrong. Within 3 minutes of starting the game I had 5 students at my table saying they had no clue what to do. *Sigh* After I took up their papers, I realized that 80% of the kids had no clue.
I am not discouraged! We will persevere! We will be doing a Domino of the Day as part of our calendar time. The students need to be able to take something as simple as a domino, take number information from it, and turn it into a number sentence. We will keep practicing here at school, but let's show the kids that numbers are everywhere!

Tip for home: I know you might not have a set of dominoes at your home (I know I don't have any at mine!) but numbers are everywhere! Have the kids count out their cereal in the morning. Let them line up the shoes in the house and put them in groups of a certain number. Let them count the spoons, let them separate the kitchen utensils, let them count the pockets on everyone's pants... be creative! If you have a deck of cards, play War with the number cards (not the face cards), and have the student add the numbers on the cards; if he or she can add them correctly, they can keep the cards, if he or she can't the cards go to you!

I want my soldiers to be able to see the world mathematically, as well as scientifically and through literature. And if we can trick the kids into learning while playing, well, I'll never let them in on that little secret. :)

Our Daily Brain