Day 71- Shape Wars

Today it was Plane Shapes vs Solids. Or, as we defined them, flat vs. 3-D.
I asked my students if they knew what it meant to say that a shape was 3-D. I received blank stares. So, I asked a different question,
"Who has ever gone to see a 3-D movie?"
Lots of raised hands now.
"Ok, who can tell me the difference between a regular movie and a 3-D movie?"

Student answers ranged from:
"3-D movies are scary." to "They have cartoons."


Finally, one brilliant soldier raised his hand.

"Mrs. Delk, in a 3-D movie, things pop out at you."
Kiss your brain, Soldier! That was a perfect answer!

I explained that a plane shape is flat, you can't hold it in your hand. Whereas a 3-D shape seems to pop off the page, and can be held.We made a list of plane and 3-D shapes while finding the 3-D shapes around the room.

Yeah, I messed up trying to draw a pyramid. As it turns out, my drawing skills are worse than I originally thought. Never fear, that's why the Internet was created! We just popped over to Google and found some wonderful examples of ancient pyramids.

But the brilliance of my students doesn't begin and end with shape knowledge. Earlier in the week, one of my female soldiers informed the class of a mathematical finding she encountered over Thanksgiving break:

"Mrs. Delk, did you know that no matter what doubles fact you add, the answer is always an even number?"
*Knock me over with a feather! This came out of the blue during calendar time.*
Me- "Really? When did you find that out?"
Soldier- "I was practicing my facts over the break and I found it out."

We practiced some to show everyone that she was right. Oh my goodness, I was so proud!

Later in the day, we were looking at the blog to see some pictures of the flood, and she made another connection. (but not in math) We were looking at {THIS} post, and looking at this picture of our playground:

and she said, "Mrs. Delk, that looks like a billibong!" Now, if you're new to the blog, she was referencing an Australian lesson where we learned some fascinating Aussie vocabulary. This is a billibong:

I can definitely see the similarities. I love when my students prove that they were listening!

Well, even though our playground is no longer under water, it is still a nasty piece of wetland. So, we had recess inside. We've been in school for 4 months and my students still love the same blocks and read/ color books. What can I say? I'm all about cheap thrills.

 Blocks

 Read and color books

Playing a sight word phrase card game. You can find the game {HERE}

The soldier in the blue shirt is addicted to this game! She wants to play it every time we have recess inside. I can tell she's getting better at her reading fluency too so I'm not going to tell her no!

Pictures from literacy centers today:

 Read, Build, Write cards and Spelling Texters

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