Sodium, Circumference, Syllables... and Spring Break!

'Twas the day before break, and the kids were excited!

We had a great, fun, day today!  The day began with Ms. Joanne's last day of Spanish class.  The kids read their Caperucita Roja stories.  At home, they wrote their own endings to the "Little Red Riding Hood story... replacing as many words as they could with Spanish ones.  Ms. Joanne and I were so impressed!  They did a fabulous job with their final assignment!

Spelling- After a review of the difficult words from this week's list, the students closed their books and took to the yard!  They had to search for Easter eggs!  In each egg was a single syllable.  They had to find all of the eggs, open them up, and help each other put the syllables together to make their spelling words.  Egg-cellent!

Grammar- Although we have discussed compound direct objects, we have not discussed how to diagram compound subjects... until today!  The students showed off their knowledge of conjunctions as they pointed out the multiple subjects in the sentences.  Then, we learned to diagram them. 

Reading/Writing-  We continue to plug along in our Hamlet for Kids unit!  The class write diligently on their Hamlet summary proses.  We are leaving these at school over the break, and will bring them back out, dust them off, and will keep adding to our summaries when we get back!

Math-  'Round and 'round we go!  Tomorrow's lesson in Teaching Textbooks involves the diameter, radius, and circumference of a circle.  So, each of these were introduced in class today.  In order to illustrate circumference, we took yarn and wrapped it around a paper plate.  We cut it to fit.  Then, we straightened the yarn, measuring it to find the circumference.  We also used yarn to show the radius and diameter of circles.  After giving the students the radius and having them tell me the diameter (and vice versa), I realized that this is one of those lessons that we can completely take off with.  They had easily mastered the concept from the lesson... and so... we took it further!  I introduced these super bright children to the concept of pi.  As soon as I introduced the term, a hand flew into the air.  "It was pi day not long ago!  What is that?"  Awesome!  I explained that pi is just a number, a long number, that we simplify to 3.14.  People sometimes refer to March 14th as "pi day", which made the number really stick in their minds!  We used pi to calculate the circumference of a circle.  They already knew how to multiply the radius by 2 to get the diameter, so I didn't confuse them with a scary looking formula.  Instead, I explained that pi is a "magic number" that can tell us the circumference of a circle.  All you have to do is multiply the diameter by pi, or 3.14.  They knew, already, that if they were only given the radius, then they would need to multiply that by 2 to get the diameter before they could figure it out!  You would think that this concept would be over the heads of 7 and 8 year olds.  However, they accepted it for what it was... a concrete, magic number that finds the circumference of a circle.

Before lunch, I read the students the Easter Story.  After reading the story, we made Resurrection Rolls.  To make the rolls, we dipped a marshmallow into melted butter.  Then, we rolled it in cinnamon and sugar.  This symbolized the preparing of Jesus' body.  The marshmallow was then wrapped in a croissant roll, which symbolized the tomb.  We put them into the oven and ate our lunch.  After lunch, we pulled them out and, amazingly enough, the tomb was EMPTY!  I have heard of this activity, but had never done it until today.  Not only was it a great lesson, it was super yummy!

Social Studies-  The kids continued their lessons on the Articles of Confederation, with a skit (that is so much more fun if you use big deep "grown up" hoity-toity voices!).  Then, they showed off the long-term projects that they have been working on at home.... Timelines over the American Revolution!  The kids did a fabulous job with these!  They added to their time line with each lesson learned.  Then, they illustrated it.  They loved seeing each other's hard work!  They are now up on the wall, for all to see!

Science-  You know the surprise you feel when you have something planned for your kids that you didn't necessarily think was exciting... and they actually end up really enjoying it??  Well, this is how I felt today!  Although our activity for science was hands on and fun, all of the children begged for more and more reading and lecture!  The topic?  Atoms and molecules.  They loved the idea that atoms have to follow rules: that different types of atoms can only bond with a certain number of other atoms.  I drew a parallel to fantasy video games, or Lego Ninjago, or those Japanese trading card games that I can never pronounce... where the characters have different battle points, or a set of values that it has to stick to.  After we learned about atoms and molecules, we used different colors of cheese to represent oxygen, hydrogen, and sodium... and used pretzel sticks to represent the bonds that each can hold.  Then, we created molecules, such as water, salt, and hydrogen peroxide!  The kids decided that they would be atoms, link arms, and form a classroom molecule for themselves!

And now, we are off to enjoy a well deserved Spring Break!!  Be safe, have fun, and we'll see you back in class on April 10th!