Moon Phases

We're in the middle of one of our last Science Units of the year- Space and the Moon Phases!  We have been watching a few videos talking about how the Earth is tilted, the moon orbits the sun, and the moon has 8 moon phases.  This is an extremely difficult concept to understand- how the moon orbits the Earth and has different amounts of views from the sun's light reflection.  In order to explain it better, the kids were able to put it to work.  The bright light is our sun, the glob is the Earth and the foam ball is the moon.  The kids moved the moon around the globe to simulate the moon orbiting the sun.  As we moved the moon around, we were able to see that most of the time only part of the moon is "lit" up by the sun's reflection.  Other times, the moon is completely black (new moon) and completely lit up (full moon).

What does the clock say?!?

We recently started our Telling Time Unit in math!  The kids enjoy playing "Bump the Alarm Clock" during their center game.  We've been doing a lot of work in our math journals with building clocks, labeling the parts of the clocks, counting the minutes, etc.  We also start each session by building a class size clock and working on telling time to the hour and 1/2 hour.

This is our NEW favorite video to play during math!

Fraction Pizza

We finished our fraction unit by making pizzas!  We talked about cutting the English muffins in half. We applied cheese first to 1/4, then 1/2, to 3/4 and finally the whole.  Some of our friends added pepperoni to 1/2 of their pizzas.  The best part was when they were done cooking.  We can to cut our pizzas into fourths and enjoy!!

Good Friday

In preparation for Good Friday, our class made a special craft.  We have been talking about Jesus and the Stations of the Cross.  We cut out 3 crosses on black plates.  We then colored coffee filters with a sunset scene.  I sprayed the coffee filters with water and added them to the back of the plates.  The final piece of art is beautiful.