Halves and Fourths

 Well, I woke up this morning with no voice... none at all!  Needless to say, my plans had to quickly change!

Class began at 10:00 today, with Ms. Allison's history class. First, they cut out the shamrock activity from last week, when they learned about St. Patrick's use of the three leaves to explain the Holy Trinity.  They had used very thick finger paint, which was made from shaving cream, white school glue, and typical green finger paint.  It made a very fluffy, light paint that was full of texture! 

Then, they talked about Rome and Julius Caesar.  The class has been reading about Caesar at home, and they had a lot to talk about!  In Rome, mosaics were traditionally used to decorate floors and walls.  Today, Ms. Allison taught the class about mosaics and their significance to Rome.  Then, the kids worked on a mosaic of their own, using colored paper.

Math- In math today, the students learned all about halves and fourths.  They made a booklet, "My Fraction Book", where they kept all of the information that they gathered today.  We talked about ways to find a half of something.  At first, they just wanted to draw a line across a page to show halves.  However, after some explanation, they realized that this would not be an accurate representation.  Instead, they folded squares and circles to create more realistic halves.  We talked about ways to half other shapes, as well.  The class then learned about fourths, or quarters.  They had all heard people say things like, "I would like a quarter of your sandwich", but they didn't know exactly what that meant!  They learned that fourths, or quarters, are four equal parts of something.  We also connected the fact that there are four quarters in a dollar.  At the end of class, their Fractions Books were full of circles, squares, and even ladybugs, all divided up into halves and fourths.

Spanish-  Spring has sprung!  Ms. Rose talked to the class about all sorts of yummy vegetables, using the Spanish vocabulary.  They discussed their favorite ways to eat different foods, mixing in the Spanish terms as they spoke.  They talked about different ways that they eat their lechuga, zanahori, maís, tomate,etc.  This lead into a great conversation about different recipes, which kept those Spanish words flowing!  When you go to the grocery store, let the kids point out the different Spanish words that they know in the produce department!

Science/Ag-  We have turkey and guinea eggs in the incubator!  Back when we hatched chicken eggs, the kids learned that they take 21 days to hatch.  Turkeys and guineas can be set in the incubator at the same time, as they both take 28 days to hatch.  This was a great opportunity to throw in some real life multiplication/division examples, as we figured out how many weeks each took to hatch. 

We talked about each type of bird, why we raise them, and what types of personalities they have.  When these guys hatch, the class is going to flip out at how tiny the guinea keets are!  Our writing assignment for the week will be about guineas.  They have bald heads, like vultures.  The class will be writing their own fable for why the guinea has a bald head.

Language Arts-  The students shared their awesome leprechaun stories today!  They really did a great job with their concepts, sentence structure, and handwriting.  Most importantly, I could tell that they truly enjoyed writing the stories, and were eager to share them with their classmates!