Planting Seeds

Planting seeds are a great science, math, writing activity that can be tied into literacy thematically with books like Titch, seed or gardening books.  They can be simply a fun activity or a daily exercise in graphing, writing, observation, and recorded through science journals.
Bean plants grow the most quickly and can be done as simply as by dampening a paper towel, folding it around a couple of seeds and placing them in ziplock bags.  This year I used sunflower seeds and clear Starbucks cups (reuse) and tied a ribbon around them as an end of the year present.

We grew them in math class and charted the growth on graphs each day.  A good tip is to always grow a couple of extra at home to switch them out if need be ; )

Working with the Clock

Reading an analog clock seems to be challenging for children, especially of this generation of phones, Ipods, computers, and other electronic devices, and of course digital clocks and watches.  I don't always teach time explicitly, rather I use the clock throughout the year and throughout each day to refer to as a tool.

One way that I scaffold reading the clock is by labeling it.  These labels can be numbers or words, and can be taken down, covered, and relabeled by the children.  School clocks that have a glass casing, can also be written on with Expo or other dry erase markers, and shaded in.  For example, we will look at the clock and determine how long we have until music class.  We discuss how much working time that is, transition time, and we can actually shade in that fraction of the the clock (yes, I also teach fractions in relation to the clock face).  Here is the clock this year in the classroom.

Surface Area and Volume

When the kids learn about surface area and volume, we begin collecting boxes that are rectangular prisms (shoe boxes do not work well as the lids overlap the top of the box).  We work with the formulas for volume and surface area for a few days. 

Two activities we do are:

Distinguishing between the uses.  The kids write the words "surface area" in large letters on one index card and "volume" on another.  You can attach these to popsicles sticks if you have some.  I then state a scenario:

"Filling a pool with water" and the kids hold up the corresponding index card.  Then "wrapping a present" and so on.  This is a quick, kinesthetic way to check on their understanding. 

Another activity we do is make a chart of different boxes that we have collected, then the kids measure the length, width, and height of the boxes, record them in the chart, then use the posted formulas to calculate the surface area and volume of each rectangular prism. 

- The kids often mix up which is the width, height, and length.   It is actually a good review of the rules of multiplication and the order of operations, as they figure out, as long as they have measured correctly, they will get the right answer.

- Another approach to finding the surface area is to find the area of each side, write it on a Post It note and then attach them to the corresponding side (or with a marker).  At the end, they pull of all the Post-its and add them up.

Circles

As we continue to explore circles, we also do a classroom project where we collect circular items and use them to find the diameter, radius, and circumference.  One thing that I note though, is that it is helpful to measure them ahead of time, since they are often not an exact measurement.  Depending on how much measuring, estimating, and multiplication with decimals you want to do, dictates the objects you may want to select ahead of time.

The students trace each object onto a piece of paper and label it (blue lid, wipes dispenser, etc).  It helps to have a running chart posted in the room that can be filled in to check answers against.  They then use a ruler to measure the diameter of the circle, divide by 2 to find the radius, and multiply by Pi to find the circumference.  This project can be extended as kids can use different units to measure with.

Teaching Circles with a Read Aloud

To teach circumference, radius, and diameter of a circle, I have a few lessons that I do.  One is to read aloud Sir Cumference and the Knights of the Round Table.  We chart the story as we go along.  (Helpful to have this done ahead of time). This is a fun book that gets the kids thinking about circles and tricks to remember the names of the parts of the circle (Lady Di of Ameter stretches her body across the circle, and the diameter is the measure of her toes to finger tips). 
Then we label a number of circles with diameter and radius.  The next day we discuss our charts and revisit the story.

Movement in Geometry

Teaching flips/reflections, slides/translations, and turns/rotations in the Geometry unit.

The students choose a letter, draw it once and cut it out four times (or trace a stencil), then give an example of this letter from a starting point, making each of these movements.

Spring Umbrellas

                                               
This is an easy project.

Materials:

tissue paper scraps
glue
paper plates
construction paper

Preparation:

1.  Cut the paper plate in half at a zig-zag.
2.  Cut out handles from construction paper and glue or staple them on.


Steps:

1.  Give each child an umbrella.
2.  They crumple up the tissue paper and glue it on.


Great way to teach colors, spring poems or rainy day rhymes!