Monday, November 29, 2021

Thanksgiving FUN

Monday, November 22nd

We started off our morning with some math hop fun!  We had to go around the hallway finding turkey number bond cards.  Each card had a number bond with a missing part.  We had to figure out which part was missing. 









Late in the day, we read about how Thanksgiving became a holiday in the United States. Did you know it was all thanks to a woman names Sarah Hale?!  Below is a link to the story about Sarah Hale.  


Did you know that after Thanksgiving was declared a holiday by Abraham Lincoln Sarah Hale published recipes for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cranberry sauce?  That is why so many of us have made these foods part of our Thanksgiving tradition.  I bet if she published recipes for pizza, we might all be eating pizza today for Thanksgiving.  

Next up for the day was a STEM challenge!  
Mrs. Wanke told us that the turkey was coming to our house as a guest for Thanksgiving dinner. We were challenged to make a chair, only out of the materials that she gave us, that could old our "turkey,"  which was a 3 pound weight.  She only gave us craft sticks, binder clips and clothes pins.  
We worked very hard to come up with a chair that could hold our turkey. 





At the end of the time only one partnership was able to make a chair that could hold the turkey. 

Great job Ryne and Gabe!

Mrs. Wanke told us that tomorrow we would be able to try again and that she would give us an additional item to use.  

Tuesday, November 23rd. 

We started our day with some Thanksgiving math stations. 

Station 1:  Was called, Turkeys in the Tree.
We started off with 20 turkeys in our tree.  We would roll a dice to see how many turkeys to remove. 
We would use this to write a subtraction sentence.  
We would continue this until we made all the turkeys disappear from our tree.  Sounds easy, until you get towards the end and there are 3 turkeys in the tree and you roll a 6!  That subtraction sentence is impossible!  Sometimes it took us a lot of rolls to get the turkeys to disappear!

Station 2: Gobblin' up Seeds
We played this with a partners.  We had to put 20 seeds in front of our partner.  Then, our partner had to close their eyes while our turkey gobbled up some seeds. After our turkey ate some seeds, our partner opened their eyes.  They had to write an addition equation that would show how to find the number of seeds the turkey ate.  
For example:  There are 20 seeds out.  When my partner opened his eyes, there were only 12 seeds left.  My partner would write 12+ ___ = 20.  They they would count on to find the missing part. 


Station 3:  Was a fun game online called Gobble Squabble!  You can click on the words Gobble Squabble to play the game at home. 


Station 4: Was a board game that helped us review addition and subtraction!



Back to our Turkey Chair STEM challenge!  
Today Mrs. Wanke gave us the same items as yesterday, but added in 8 snap cubes.  This really help!  All of us were able to make a chair that could hold the 3 pound weight...I mean turkey!




We did some more reading today!
Mrs. Wanke read us a nonfiction book about Thanksgiving Traditions  We read about the Macy's Day parade, the pardoning of turkey, the wishbone, and watching football.
Mrs. Wanke showed us the video of President Biden pardoning the turkeys Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Then, she read us the story Balloons Over Broadway!  This is the true story of a puppeteer name Tony Sarge, an immigrant, that designed the Macy's Day parade balloons. 


Mrs. Wanke challenged all of us to watch some of the Macy's Day parade!

Lastly, she read us one more Thanksgiving story, called How to Catch a Turkey. 


In the story, the turkey ran through a maze in the library.  Mrs. Wanke gave us Legos and challenged us to make a maze. 







The once our maze was done, we were each given a marble, I mean turkey, to try and get through our maze.  We swapped mazes with other groups to see if they could get the turkey through our maze. 






We had a fun 2 days together exploring Thanksgiving!




Friday, October 29, 2021

Candy Corn Bandit

Candy Corn Bandit


The Candy Corn Bandit stole Mrs. Wanke's candy!  Mrs. Wanke needed those for our Halloween Party!  This is what we found when we turned on our Smartboard...


 a letter from the Candy Corn Bandit, Candy Corn Bandit booklets for each of us, and a clue!  Then, we looked at the Candy Corn booklets. On the inside we had to draw what we predicted the Candy Corn Bandit to look like. 





Then, we had to predict three places we thought the candy corns might be.



Finally it was time to read the first clue and set off on our candy corn hunt!




We made a prediction based upon what we read in clue one.  We predicted the candy would be in the lunch room! When we got to the lunch room...all we found was another clue. 



 After reading that clue, we predicted that we would find the candy in the gym.
When we got to the gym, all we found was another clue.





  After reading that clue, we predicted we would find the candy on the play ground.  When we got outside, all we found was ANOTHER clue!



  After reading that clue, we predicted we would find the candy in the library.  But, when we got the the library, all we found was ANOTHER clue! Boy oh boy this Candy Corn bandit was causing some trouble! 





After reading the clue, we predicted we would find the candy in the classroom.
When we got to the classroom...what do YOU predict we found?


You got it...the CANDY and another clue!

Clue #6 told us to keep our eyes open and our candy protected.  We also had to finish up the last page of our Candy Corn Bandit book before we could get our candy corn.

This activity was great for making predictions and inferences.  Not only did we predict where the candy would be, we also made predictions about how the bandit was able to pull off this crime, did the bandit have an accomplice, how big was the bandit, and what was the bandits motive. 

When we got back to the class, Mrs. Wanke had a light bulb moment.  She said that we could use predictions and inferences when we read!  WOW...she is right. 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Owl Pellets


Last week we read the story White Owl, Barn Owl.  In the story the little girl and her grandpa found owl pellets.  


We were intrigued that we could pull apart an owl pellet and determine what the owl ate by the bones that we found. So yesterday, we thought we would give this a try and dissected owl pellets!  Most of us were apprehensive at first.















Our apprehension quickly turned to excitement when we started finding bones! 








Here are some action shots of us dissecting our owl pellets! 








Many of your kiddos brought bags of bones home.  Check out the chart below to determine what the owl ate.