Different animals inhabit the earth...

Science: Today we had a very engaging lesson that introduced the students to our new unit by reinforcing the big idea that "different animals inhabit the earth". We read entries in an Animal Atlas which described 9 different animals (giraffe, camel, eagle, koala, panda, jaguar, etc.) After finding out information about these animals, we placed magnets of them on a large map of the world. After that had been done for all of the animals, students were excused back to their own seats to recreate the map with their own map and smaller pictures of the same animals. Students were hugely successful with this assignment and seemed to really enjoy learning about the animals in the process.

Literacy: We completed another page in our "Mittens" book. Today was "Mittens with smiles."

Art: The second January quilt square, which we completed today, was much more challenging. It involved creating a snowman out of construction paper. The catch? No scissors were used, students were challenged to use tearing as the only means of creating. Some students became frustrated, but all were able to successfully and artistically interpret a snowman on their square, even adding such details as an orange carrot nose, colored buttons, and white snowflakes falling in the background.

Math: We did a count and write exercise with trees and students who finished early were asked to create their own on the back and challenge a friend at their table to count them and record how many.

Friday Funday

Read Aloud: We read a non-fiction story called Zoo that presented several different animals that you would find at a zoo and told about their attributes. The children enjoyed it very much.