Measurement, Clouds & A Giveaway!

Our hallway has been buzzing with preparations for our literacy week!  During this time
we also host a Literacy Night for families to come into the classrooms and participate in book
related activities so.... this week, we got our bulletin board ready to go!

We had a discussion about some of our favorite books and my class shared their earliest
memories of reading and being read to.  They also thought about all the things that their
favorite books had given them as readers. Next we made birthday cupcakes and students
wrote about a present  they would give the author in return.

You can find this activity {here}

 Here's a peek at some other things we've been doing the past few weeks.  I've gotten really behind in sharing what we've been up to!  My class really loves making books and during our weather unit we made these super easy cloud books.

I think I mentioned before that our local news channel came to visit and broadcast the morning weather
news from our school.  Let me tell you it is all kinds of weird seeing yourself on TV!
Of course, we had a little mishap!  One of my little friends dropped a pair of undies out of
her coat pocket on live TV.  Yep, she apparently grabbed them out of the hot dryer at home to keep her hands warm on the way to school.  She had several socks in there too, but those stayed put. True story.

Our whole grade level made posters to show the news folks what we'd been learning
about weather. This is one of my favorites and since we were also working with measurement
in math it tied in perfectly with an ongoing discussion we'd been having
about tools, units, and types of measure that we use in both math and science!

We began our measurement unit by talking about the differences between standard and 

nonstandard forms of measurement and how important and necessary a standard form is. 

To illustrate this I read the book How Big Is A Foot? by Rolf Myller.  

We did an activity that a former teammate (whom we all miss terribly!)

shared where students cut a strip of paper to create their own unit.  I whipped up this really 

Plain Jane little recording sheet that morning because I forgot to save the really cute one to my flash drive! That's what I get for not using Dropbox! Ha!  Anyway, it did the trick!Students drew and named their units then measured various items from inside their desks and around the classroom.  I then had kiddos find a buddy who had measured some of the same items they had and compare. Of course none of their measurements matched, and this led to some great math talk as to why.

Before moving on to using standard forms, we took this a step further and students measured given items with connecting cubes and large paper clips. I had them compare the two and explain in writing why they thought the measurements were different.

I used Jamie Rector's Common Core Quick Math Assessments (which I *LOVE* and                             use all.the.time) to assess this skill using inches, centimeters, yards and meters.

Every year I have kiddos who struggle with using all the vocabulary correctly so
I made these task cards to use in our math stations to help my kiddos connect tools, units
and types of measure.  It has REALLY helped them with this and they love using them!

You can find this in my store on TPT  or  TN 

I received quite a few emails from Canadian and Australian teachers asking for a metric version with the alternative spellings.  (It's so fun to *meet* and chat other teachers from around the globe!) This metric version includes 2 sets of anchor charts with both the US and Canadian/Australian spellings.

You can also find this in my store on TPT or TN

Before I go I have to tell you about a fantastic 1000 followers giveaway over at  The Tattooed Teacher!  Rachel is giving away 15 fabulous resources from 15 fantastic teachers!
AND....that's not all!  You can also win a $25 gift card to TPT!

Here's what you can win from my store....Just in time for your springtime life cycle studies!
This unit is loaded! It includes mini-labs, reading strategies, expository writing, graphic organizers, observation journals, vocabulary cards, art integration, anchor charts and a culminating foldable flower project book for extension or assessment!  Whew! You can check out this unit in action in my classroom {here} then head over to The Tattooed Teacher and enter to win it!

Have a great week friends, Spring Break is coming!