The Moon # 2

Earth, Moon, and Sun

              First,  we watched this short animation that I found on Youtube.

      

        To help the students understand the size and position of the Earth, Moon, and Sun, the students became these three space objects.   The majority of the students pushed their desks together, climbed on top and held a sun made out of butcher paper.

         Next, three students held a butcher paper Earth, and two students held a construction paper moon and began to orbit the Earth.  Then the Earth and the Moon students began to orbit the Sun.

         This was so much fun and the students really began to understand how these three space objects work together! 

Here are some of the questions I asked after this activity.
-  Why are there more people in the sun?
-  Why didn't they move?
-  When the moon is between the Sun and the Earth, what phase of the moon do you think this is?
-  When the moon is to the side of the Earth, how does that look to us here on Earth?

The Moon #1

We started our Moon unit with a KWL chart.  The students wrote what they know and what they want to know about the moon.  As we worked through the unit we filled in the "L" with what we have learned and checked off the questions under the "W" as we answered them.  We are still is doing this unit so our KWL chart is still in the works.

We use BrainPopJr.com, NASA kids, Youtube, and many books to learn more about the moon.   These are some of the books we read. 

Measurement with Jack and the Beanstalk

     I began this unit by reading Jack and the Beanstalk  to my students.  Then as with any book we read, the students answered a number of questions and retold the story.  Next, I asked the students to tell me different characters and important things from the story.  Each thing they told me, I wrote on a note card.  The students then put three or four of the cards in order from lightest to heaviest, shortest to tallest, and so on.

       


          Next, we created a chart of the characters and objects from the story, what we could measure on the characters, and what we would use to measure them.  I used this to get an insight into what the students already knew and where I needed to go with my teaching.

 The next step in this unit is for the students to use their feet to measure out parts of a giant.  I can't wait to put those pictures on here.  That is always a super fun activity!

Meet the Teacher

           One of my favorite blogs, The First Grade Parade, is hosting a Linky Party, and I had to get in on the action!  So here we go!

 

Hi everyone!  My name is Jena and I have been teaching for four years, all in first grade.  After this semester, I will have only three classes left until I have a Master's of Instructional Technology.   I am single and ready to mingle... Sort of :).  I have lots of family and friends who I love spending time with. I do not have pets.  I have four-legged children. Oh, and two-legged with two wings.

Henry- The most precious baby of all

Lucie

Striker- The Big Ol' Baby

Mollie

  

Duckie

 



Now for the Q & A

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?                                             
A: Vet school.  On the toughest of days I think, "I'm going to apply for vet school."  Then I remember I love teaching and don't really want to do anything else. 

Q: What are your hobbies?                                                                                    
A:  I love taking pictures, reading, making junk...I mean crafts, painting, and sewing.

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?                     
A:  A comedienne.  My goal was to be on Saturday Night Live.   
   
Q: What are your guilty pleasures?                                                              
 A: Coke, Popcorn, and Candy.  Those 3 things along with a season of the X-Files.... HAYYY!

Q: What is your biggest fear?!                                                                   
 A: Ok don't laugh.  I cannot go to the bathroom with the light off.  I'm always afraid that something is going to come up and grab me when I sit down.  HAHA!

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?                               
 A: I like going anywhere.  I love learning about the history of the places I go.  New Orleans is probably one of my favorite and most unique places I've visited. 
                                                         
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?                                                   
A: Do what you know is right and best for you.  Don't try to make everyone else happy.

Q: What do you value most in others?                                                                   
A:  I like people who are genuine.  They have no ulterior motives behind the things they say or do.  

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?                                                                                                        
A:   My open mindedness... Haha.  I like to get to know people despite their race, religion, lifestyle, ect., before I form an opinion of them.  Like Dr. King said, "Judged by their content of character."

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?                                                                                                           
A: The writers of Glee.  I would ask them how they manage to make me laugh and cry in every single episode!

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:

I LOVE THE MOVIE STEEL MAGNOLIAS!  I have watched it so many times I can almost quote it from start to finish.  This past Christmas I got to go to the Festival of Lights that is in Natchitoches, Louisiana where Steel Magnolias was based and filmed.  It was a total dream come true!

The Eatenton House- Where Shelby got married

Click this button to join the party!

Books for Black History Month

February is one of my favorite months because of all the extra things that are going on.  My absolute favorite thing to teach during February is African American History.  Here are a few of my favorite books that I use to teach about a few of my favorite historical African Americans.  I'll be posting some activities that can go with these books throughout the month.  

Brown Eggs and Peace

     If you are a teacher in Texas then you have heard of CScope.  The CScope exemplar lesson covering Dr. King has the students compare a brown egg and a white egg on a Venn Diagram.  The use of eggs made me think of  Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.  This gave me the idea to join the Dr. King lesson and the book in a mini-unit that I call "Brown Eggs and Peace."
     I began the unit by reading Green Eggs and Ham. I asked questions to lead the students to realize that the character didn't like green eggs just because he never tried them. Then I asked the students if they liked brown eggs, and of course they all said no.  When I asked them why, they all said they didn't know because they had never tried them.  We looked at the outside and the inside of the eggs and recorded our observations on a Venn Diagram.  Then I scrambled the eggs in an electric skillet.  Each student was given 2 little cups, one had a bite of scrambled brown eggs and the other, a bite of scrambled white eggs.   The students had to guess the cup that had the brown eggs, and then we compared the taste of the eggs.  By the end of the first day, we had concluded that the eggs smelled, tasted, sounded and felt the same.  The only difference was the appearance of the eggs, and everyone had decided they liked brown eggs just as much as white eggs. 
     The next lesson was to start a class writing modeled after Green Eggs and Ham.  In the class writing it is not Sam I Am asking the class if they like Brown Eggs and Peace, instead it is Martin Luther King.  We then turned our writing into a digital storybook.  

Cooperative Learning with a STEM Lesson

      This is an example of a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) lesson that is done as a part of inquiry based learning at our school.  We try to get one of these projects done for every science unit we cover.  The one that I am posting as an example was a lesson that was done with  the force and motion/push and pull unit.  We follow a simplistic version of the engineering process.

      Throughout this process the students work in cooperative learning groups.  Each member of the group has a special job that he or she does during the engineering process.  To get the labels and descriptions for the cooperative learning group jobs, click this link:  Cooperative Learning Labels.

     In the "Imagine" stage, we go through a PowerPoint explain to the students what the project will require them to do. Click this link to view the PowerPoint Presentation I made for the push and pull unit:  Ramps: Forces and Motion ppt. If you would like the PowerPoint with working animations, just email me!  After the PowerPoint, the students break into their cooperative learning groups and the scribe of the group draws, with input from the group, what the final result will look like.
 
     In the "Plan" stage, again with input from the group, the scribe will  list all the materials that the group will need to complete the project.  The materials manager then brings the list to me at the "store" and get all the materials the group has listed.  By doing this the group must think ahead and decided what will work best for the final project.  They also have to think about everything that is needed to complete the project, like glue or tape to hold the larger materials together or scissors to cut the materials.  In the ramp project specifically the students had to choose what materials would work best for a platform and a ramp.
      The "Design" stage is when the group actually builds the ramp or whatever the project maybe. Then they test it to see if their planning and design was successful.    In this case the ramps were successful if the car was able to be pushed from the platform and roll past at least 5 floor tiles.
                                            Success!

    
                                     
                           Needs Improvement :(

      If the design did not succeed, then the group must rethink and improve upon the original design. 

     As with most everything we do in out class, we always end with a writing.  Each student will write their own story about the project.