Happy Harvest Week

In the upcoming week, my class is hosting a "Happy Harvest Week" with our students. Throughout this week, the students will participate in a specific theme and also complete different activities involving pumpkins. Our "Happy Harvest Week" begins on Monday when we will count the different seeds found in a carved pumpkin. On Tuesday, the students will participate in a school-wide hat day in which they will have to pay a $0.50 donation that will go to the United Way. In our classroom, we will also be having Tell & Show Tuesday (Show & Tell) as well as doing an activity where the students will be weighing their pumpkins and graphing the results. On Wednesday, we will be dressing for Wacky Wednesday and I am very excited to make my hair a little crazy and wear different shoes! We will also be doing an activity to see whether our pumpkins will float or sink. Thursday will be Thankful Thursday in which the students will bring in something that they are thankful for. Through this theme, we are hoping to promote the school-wide positive behavior support plan where the students show compassion and respect for something/someone meaningful to them. Our pumpkin activity of the day will require the students to measure their pumpkins with a ruler from the bottom to the top of the stem. They will also have to measure their pumpkin with cubes. For our final day of our "Happy Harvest Week", we will be having Fan Friday in which the students will dress in their favorite team's colors! Our pumpkin activity will involve the students finding the circumference of their pumpkins.

I am very excited to participate in "Happy Harvest Week" because I think that it will be a great way to get the students excited about learning. Due to the fact that the students are unable to dress up for Halloween, I think that these activities will allow the students to be excited about the entire season of Fall rather than just the Halloween day.

Whatcha' Packin' Sugar?

The topic of study in science this week for one of my students is the food pyramid and deciphering between healthy and unhealthy foods. After giving a brief presentation of the food pyramid, I allowed this student to play a game in which she was expected to drag the different foods into the correct food group. I was surprised to find that the shape of the food pyramid had changed into a plate rather than the well known pyramid. The student that I was working with has Autism and is non-verbal so it is often hard to read what she is thinking. Through this activity though, she was fully smiling throughout the entire activity which allowed me to know that she was enjoying it.

The end of my lesson involved this student participating in an experiment. First, I laid out 4 different snacks and explained that we were going to be sorting them according to healthy and unhealthy snacks. In order to complete this activity, I gave her a science log and had her write down her hypothesis of what snacks she thought were the healthiest through the unhealthiest. The snacks I provided were alphabet cookies, fruit roll-ups, apple sauce and a Reese’s cup. After her hypothesis was completed, I had her (using a tea-spoon) measure out the amount of sugar that is included in each snack. Due to the fact that conversions are too difficult for her to solve, I had converted the amount of sugar (which was presented in grams) into teaspoons so that it was easier for her to measure out. After measuring out the sugar in each snack, we compared the piles to determine which was the healthiest. My student had a blast with this activity and it really was eye-opening as to how much sugar is actually in each of the foods that we eat.

Ahoyy Mate!

This week in math my students were learning about measurement and how to use a ruler. To wrap up the week, I chose to incorporate a fun pirate treasure hunt to assess the students understanding of using a ruler. To begin my lesson, I asked the students if they had seen anyone (different than usual) come into the room while we had stepped out. With confused looks on their faces, I explained that someone had left an interesting note (tied with ribbon) and 4 pirate hats. As soon as the students heard/saw the pirate hats, they were immediately excited! We discussed the possibilities of what the note could be. "Maybe it's a treasure map" they all kept shouting. Ah, the treasure map. I knew I had forgot something!

You see, I created a treasure hunt for the students including clues that they would need to follow. In order to solve each clue and get to the next, the students had to measure the designated item stated on the previous clue. The students loved it because each clue was written in pirate language! The activity went very well and the students enjoyed it very much. I was also very happy to see them properly using the ruler as they had learned all week.

If I could change anything about the lesson, I would remember to incorporate a treasure map. Although it was not needed for this activity, I think it would have made the effects more interesting and maybe I could have incorporated measurement into the map as well!

Show Me The Money

This week in math the topic of my lessons are dealt around counting and identifying money: coins and dollars. Yesterday, I introduced the topic by making Money Boards. To create this, I used glittery foam boards and glued pipe cleaners on the board so that it was divided into 4 squares: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. Next, I took Velcro and put it on both the board (2 pieces in each square) and on the back of foam that was labeled: 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents. I also put Velcro on an actual penny, nickel, quarter, and dime. When presented to the students, I had the value foam pieces and actual money in a plastic baggie so that the only thing on their board was the labels: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. First I wanted to know what the students already knew about coins so I explained that I wanted them to take the values and the coins and Velcro them in the correctly labeled box. Through this opening activity, I was able to understand what coins the students already were able to identify and which they struggled with. I was also able to get an understanding of whether or not they knew the different coin values. Out of the 4 students that I have at this time, 2 of them were able to identify at least 2 of the coins and their correct value. Now, after going through the coins more, I use this same activity as a "practice" session in which the students can practice identifying what they have learned over the past few days. The students really enjoy this activity because the sparkly foam has seemed to excite them. They also really enjoy Velcroing the different coins to the foam and pulling them off. I highly recommend anyone who is teaching money to make these boards!