Icky, Icky Germs!!

Our new unit in Health is about health and wellness and it started by taking a look at infectious diseases and what causes them: germs.  We've discussed how infectious diseases spread and the ways they can hurt your body.  As a creative flair we created our own germ complete with a picture, description, and details about how they get into and effect your body.  We then made a "WANTED" poster telling all about our germs using an app called "PicCollage."  It's basically a collage on the Ipad complete with text, backgrounds, pictures, and fun font.  Check out some pictures from our experience!

Writing Process: Publishing

This week in writing we got started publishing our very first Children's book. You heard correctly, your children are now published authors! ;). We split our written stories into pages and typed them into Microsoft Word. For some extra flair we added fun fonts. All that's left is to make the cover and illustrations. We can't wait for you to see our finished pieces!

Leaning Tower of Feetzah

Mrs. Gibson payed a special visit to our room the other day and needless to say we had a lot of fun. Her lesson was on teamwork and luckily it did not stink!  Students were put in groups and told to make the tallest free standing structure they could with only shoes. The group that won did so because they worked together, listened to each other's ideas, and compromised. It was a great learning experience and I was impressed by their hard work!  

Math This Week: Data and Graphing

In math this week we've been learning about graphing and we started with the ever popular pictographs.  Pictographs are a way to show data using pictures.  We originally made a tally chart showing the favorite ice cream flavors of the class and turned it into a pictograph.  We also made some of our own pictographs showing our own data.  This is a great life skill as data and graphs are used often in the world around us.

Can't Get Enough Cursive

Cursive practice is in full force in Mrs. Hunter's class!  We've almost tackled all of the lowercase letters and will begin the uppercase letters soon.  The students are eager to put their skills to use and to use cursive during their everyday writing.

Please do not practice any cursive at home until we are done teaching the lowercase letters.  We use specific terminology to teach the formation of letters and we don't want to create any confusion.

When it is time to practice cursive at home, make sure your child is sitting in a chair at a desk or table with a fresh pencil.  They should be sitting straight up with both feet on the ground.  This posture helps ensure the best possible handwriting.

We've done a great job practicing so far.  Enjoy some pictures of our work below.

National Symbols with 30 hands!

Remember our exploration with 30 hands??  Well we were able to put it to good use while we studied our national symbols.  First, students researched on computers about two of our national symbols.  After their research was complete, they made a 30 hands presentation to present to the class.  They were required to state their symbol, and include at least one picture and two facts.  The rest was left to them!  They really took the project and ran with it and I was pleased to see them adding their own flair.  Many went above and beyond to make their presentations AMAZING!!

Exploring with Ipads

We're lucky at TMP to have some amazing technology right at our fingertips.  Our latest exploration was with Ipad app 30 hands.  This application is similar to PowerPoint in that students can create presentations but it is much more user friendly.  Using the app, students can type, write with their finger, or record their voice as well as draw pictures, take pictures, and upload pictures from the internet.   For our initial exploration, students were allowed to make presentations on anything they wanted.  It was wonderful to have their creative sides come through!  Enjoy some pictures from our exploration.