Is One-Half Always Equal to One-Half?

Lately in class we have been exploring the concept of fractions. Today, during Calendar Math, I asked the students a question: Is one-half always equal to one-half? As I anticipated, the majority of the students incorrectly answered "yes." Then, I asked them to consider the size of the whole. For example, what if I ordered a Personal Pan Pizza and my friend ordered an X-Large Pizza. Will our "halves" be equal in size? Within seconds of posing this example, there was an uproar in the class. An example as simple as pizza, made all of the students change their mind about the answer to this seemingly simple question. Today's lesson: Consider the size of the whole when comparing fractions AND it is crucial to use the same size "whole" when representing fractions on paper. Besides the pizza example, what example can you come up with to prove that one-half is not always equal to one-half? Post a comment and let the world know!
Fractions are fabulous... (and so are my students)!!
-Miss Russell :)

Happy 100th Day of School!

Hard to believe, but today marks the 100th day of school (only 80 more to go!)! Today students spent time working on a 100th Day of School packet that included 17 different activities. Each activity focused on the fantastic number 100! Activities included math, science, language arts, and social studies. Students had to do everything from 100 jumping jacks, counting heartbeats, probability games, making lists of 100 words, making equations that equal 100, playing "Close to 100," dancing for 100 seconds, and Miss Russell's favorite...staying silent for 100 seconds. Students also had a 100th day of school snack. Each student grabbed 10 pieces of 10 different snacks totaling 100. We love the number 100 because it is such an important landmark number in our number system. A BIG "Thank You" to all of the families that donated snacks to make this day possible. It was a great day!
Thanks for checking in,
Miss Russell :)

Science Rocks!

Before the winter break, students were busy in science class observing different kinds of rocks. As they observed the rocks using hand lenses, the students were encouraged to think of different ways to classify, or sort, the rocks. Some of the observable properties that they came up with were: size, shape, color, and texture. When school starts back tomorrow, we will review these ideas and begin talking about weathering and erosion on earth.
Thanks for checking in!
:) Miss Russell

Thanksgiving Raps

Here are the final two Thanksgiving Raps. Thanks for your patience in getting these posted. They are worth the wait! :)





Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by.
-Miss Russell :)

Thanksgiving Fun!

On Monday, we read this month's Book of the Month A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly. After reading this book, the students had several choices for responding to this book: 1) Make a Thanksgiving rap, 2) Make a Thanksgiving commercial discouraging people from eating turkey for Thanksgiving or 3) Making a Thanksgiving ABC book. Here are a few of the student responses that we have worked on over the past two days.

















We hope you enjoy these commercials and raps. There are more to come! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! :)
-Miss Russell :)

Water Cycle Fun!

For the past few weeks, we have been learning about the water cycle. The water cycle is the movement of water from Earth's surface into the air and back again. As water moves through this continuous cycle, it changes forms. The Sun's energy (heat) causes water to evaporate and become water vapor. Water vapor rises into the cooler air and turns into water droplets or ice crystals. Water vapor in the air that turns back into a liquid is called condensation. Water that falls to the Earth is called precipitation.
On Wednesday, we brought the water cycle into our class....sort of. We set up a demonstration using a heating element (representing the Sun's heat), a tea kettle filled with water and a tray full of ice (representing the cool clouds). We found that when the water evaporated and rose to the "clouds" that condensation was formed and in turn, we created precipitation. Need a visual? Click on the video below.



Also, take a look at the following video for an explanation by one of our friends about what he learned regarding the water cycle.



Learning about the water cycle has been so much fun. We have also learned a really fun song about the water cycle and we will be making water cycle bracelets. I am glad that you were able to take a peek into our classroom. Thanks for reading!
-Miss Russell :)

The Blue Planet

Today we began our new science unit by exploring how much water is on Earth. First, students made their predictions about how much water is on Earth. Next, we used a beach ball globe to represent the Earth.

We tossed the globe 100 times and kept a tally of how many times our right pointer finger landed on water or on land. From this information, we were able to determine a percentage of water compared to land. We did this three times to make sure our information was accurate.

Our experiment concluded that about 72 percent of the Earth is covered with water. Our experiment proved to be almost exactly what scientists say is the amount of water on Earth.