Month: February 2015

We have been learning about how things change over time. This week, we read Farfallina and Marcel which is about the friendship between a caterpillar (Farfallina) and gosling (Marcel). Both characters go through changes as Farfallina becomes a butterfly and Marcel grows from a gosling to a goose. Sadly, as both characters appearances change quite drastically, they no longer recognize one another. Then one day, they begin having a conversation and are delighted to discover that they are long lost friends!

Amazing Words:

• caterpillar
• butterfly
• cocoon
•  gosling
• goose
• reflection

The children have been writing and illustrating sentences using the weekly amazing words. At the end of the year, we will combine their writing pieces into individualized books for each child to take home. Additionally, each amazing word is underlined, so the students will always remember them!

We also began exploring three-dimensional shapes this week. We learned that three-dimensional shapes are solid, (not flat) and have corners, edges and faces. We even learned a new song to help us recall the names of the shapes and compare them to real world examples.

Chorus

Here are the 3D shapes that I know…

A sphere, a cylinder, a cube, and a cone (and a pyramid)

Verse 1

A baseball, the moon

And an orange I have right here

Are all examples of a 3D shape

That people call a sphere

A basketball, the Earth

And marbles I have here

Are all examples of a 3D shape

That people call a sphere

Verse 2:
A soda can, a pencil shaft,

And a can of soup would be

Examples of a cylinder

As you can plainly see

A marker, a glass of milk,

And a peanut butter jar

Are examples of a cylinder

Yes, I’m sure they are.

Verse 3:
An ice cube, a cardboard box,

And a birthday present for you

Are all examples of a 3D shape 
that people call a cube

My little dice, a Rubix cube,

And a block that I use

Are all examples of a 3D shape

That people call a cube

Verse 4:
An ice cream cone, a pencil tip,

And a megaphone

Are all examples of a 3D shape

That people call a cone

A birthday hat, a traffic cone,

Or a funnel in my home

Are all examples of a 3D shape

That people call a cone

Verse 5

A paper weight, Egyptian pyramids

And some tents would be

Examples of a pyramid

As you can plainly see

 

The children went on a scavenger hunt and found various two and three-dimensional objects.

Here are some of the three-dimensional shapes we found in our classroom:

Sphere: an orange, a clementine, the bead container on the art shelf, and the shemesh (sun) light hanging from the ceiling

Cylinder: water bottles, thermoses, some containers on the art shelf, the paper towels, the trash can

Cube: lunch boxes, snack containers, tissue boxes

Cone: The tips of the pencils, one of the magnet blocks

Pyramid: Some friends made pyramids out of Magna-tiles.

In a compare and contrast activity, the children analyzed the differences and similarities between two-dimensional shapes and three three-dimensional shapes :