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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Capacity: Gallon Man and Gallon Gal

We've been studying capacity and we decided to celebrate with... glue and scissors!! It's creativity time, people!
Introducing... Gallon Man and Gallon Gal!!

It's a fun engaging learning activity that enables students to see how different units of capacity fit together.

Here's what you'll need:
4 sheets of paper (we used card stock I had on hand, but other classes used different colored construction paper)
paper plates (optional)

scissors
glue
crayons (Oh, yes my friends! We used CRAYONS!!)

1. Take first sheet of paper and label it GALLON. This is the Gallon Man's body/chest.

2. Take second sheet of paper and fold/cut it into even fourths. Label each fourth QUART. These will be connected to Gallon Man. Two are for the arms, two for the legs.

3. Take third sheet of paper and fold/cut it into even eighths. Label each eighth PINT. Two PINTS should be glued to each QUART- making the arms and legs longer.

4. Take fourth sheet of paper and fold/cut it into even sixteenths. Label each sixteenth CUP. Two CUPS should be glued onto each PINT- creating fingers and toes.

5. Students can decorate the paper plates to make faces for their Gallon Men or Gallon Gals. Plates are then stapled onto the complete body.

Here are our creations!








We had to much fun.. I mean... the kids learned so much by making these! We then created and answered capacity questions using our Gallon Men and Gallon Gals.
Great job, Soldiers!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Science: Sound Stations

At the last science professional development of the year, we looked at the science of sound. Here are some of the activities we teachers got to play with. :)

Mystery Egg Shakers


 You know all those Easter eggs that are just sitting around your house right now, just waiting for next year's hunt? Put them to good use! Mystery Egg Shakers!
Each egg is holding different small items and students must guess the item based on the sound of it being shaken in the egg.
Here are some of the ideas for the small items: small barrette, dice, rubber ball, chalk, safety pins, brass brads, shells (or shell noodles), rubber bands, push pins, shelf hooks, Lego block, paper, cotton ball, hard candy
Students will have to describe how object sound when being shaken in the egg. They can also describe the weight of the egg. It was lots of fun to play as an adult, so I know the kids would love it!

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Mini Milk Carton Guitar
 Remember doing this when you were in school? It's still fun today! Using pencils to make sure the rubber bands have vibrating room, use different sized bands to create different sounds. Bonus points of you can play a song!
 This activity was found online, so our presenter couldn't take the credit. Not sure of the website, but love the activity!

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PVC Mouth Pipe

Using PVC pipe cut into 4-8 inch sections, the pipes are first glues together using plumbers glue, then taped together using pretty tape. (to cover the ugly glue)
Our facilitator mentioned that if you're a teacher, and have adorable puppy eyes, places like Ace and Home Depot will usually cut the pipe for a discount- and sometimes for free!

I've seriously enjoyed the science professional developments this year. Can't wait to see what they have in store for us next year!

Studying Perimeter

This post is a little late since we studies perimeter over a week ago. Oops.

Perimeter is the distance around a shape. Since we'd been studying polygons, this seemed like a fun way to review polygons and perimeter together.

Teams of students were given 12 pencils (not sharpened). It was originally supposed to be toothpicks, but I couldn't find the box I used last year.

Students were to create polygons using these rules:
  1. Closed shape
  2. No slanted/ diagonal lines
  3. No re-dos
  4. Perimeter HAS to be 12. No more, no less.
After students created their polygons, they had to be checked by me, then they were to be drawn on graph paper. The shape was then labeled with the name of the polygon, the perimeter, and the area.

Let the creativity begin!







 Basically the same shape, but done by 2 different groups. :) 



 I didn't get pictures of their graph paper, but I will say that they were surprised at how small their creations were when put on paper.

Everyone did a great job! I was impressed with how focus they stayed. 45 min of straight creating and documenting!

Awesome job, Soldiers!