Carol is demonstrating the proper way to milk a cow

Down on the Farm

March has been a happening place in Smac. We have been talking about the farm and animals who live there. We talked about horses and saw kids like us learning to ride at special stables. The next week we learned about cows. We made homemade butter out of cream, and took turns "milking" the cow. This week we are talking about chickens. We cracked an egg open to look inside and we watched video showing how a new chick hatches. We will finish the farm unit with a creative writing project. All in all, learning about the farm was a lot of fun!

The Way I Feel
February is all about feelings. The book The Way I Feel has fun pictures that depict emotions that all of us experience.

 We read the book together. Then we took a look at some video of Kauri Sue friends who may be feelings some of those same feelings.

I don't like this feeling

I like this feeling

Part of the lesson was discussing good choices that we can make when we feel undesirable feelings. 

From Ocean to Desert

Utah desert

We are talking about the Desert this week. The students have learned that Utah is the state in which they live, and Utah is a desert!

In order to survive in the desert, plants need to be able to store water. The kids were able to feel the leaves of an Aloe Vera plant. The outside was tough and had prickly spines. The we cut open the leaf and the kids could feel it was wet and soft inside.

Desert Animals

We have talked about some cute desert animals, and some that are not so cute. The kids have found even the most repulsive animals interesting. (Though some kids did not want to touch the toy snake!)

Diamond Back Rattlesnake

Scorpion

Coyote

Jack Rabbit

Desert Spiney Lizard

Next week we are headed to the forest!

Have To Have a Habitat!

January is about habitats. The first week we had an overview of what a habitat was. It is after all a weird word. We will be talking about 4 habitats: The ocean, the desert, the forest, and people habitats. The purpose of this unit is to teach the students that animals live in different places and environments. Those that live in the ocean could not live in the desert. At the end of the unit I will have them sort animals into their habitats. I'll let you know how it goes.

For the next 2 weeks we are targeting the ocean habitat. Several of the classrooms are following the theme with a trip to the Aquarium. I am learning along with the kids! Check out this video created by BBC and see if you are familiar with facts of the Blue Whale.

Star Fall in Math

Thanks to our wonderful Vice Principal, Courtney Titus, we are able to access more StarFall. In math I have been using StarFall to begin the class with a counting song. The animations and music are fun. Then I use the number portion of StarFall to introduce and practice a number a week. StarFall.com is free in it's limited form. Try it out, it's fun!!

The Water Cycle

We have been talking about water this month. We are learning that water can change. It can be liquid, a gas when it evaporates, and a solid if frozen. 
The kids got to feel and see water as a liquid. They found they could not pick up a liquid! They also got feel and see water as a solid. Many did not like the cold feel of the ice. And, with the help of our mist maker they could see water in a gas form.

Pretty cool!

Germs and Handwashing

 Science is always so exciting isn't it? For germ month I targeted 7 areas in the school and swabbed them for germs, let them grow for a week in a Petri dish, and examined them under a microscope. The findings were kind of gross. 

handrail

desk top

drinking fountain

bathroom floor

classroom toilet

Germs can make you sick!

my pumpkin before Halloween

 It is cold and flu season again! SMAC class will be learning about microbes. Students will be taught that not all microbes are bad. We need microbes to help plants decay and feed new vegetation

My pumpkin after weekend break

There are microbes that will make us sick. We call these germs. There are some things that we can do to help us keep germs from making us sick.

Don't pick your nose! Use a kleenex

Cough into your elbow

Cover your mouth when you sneeze

The most important thing we can do is  
wash your hands!

Math and Money

show me the money!

This month Math is all about the money! Younger students will be given the experience to exchange a dollar for their choice of treat. For those seasoned shoppers we will be working on "A dollar more". Dollar amounts will be focused on values of $1.00 to $5.00. This strategy teaches students that if they want to buy something that costs $1.50, they need to give a 'dollar more' or 2 dollars.
I have found that the students enjoy the cash register almost as much as they enjoy the treat.

Carve a virtual pumpkin!

http://www.theoworlds.com/halloween/

Going Batty in SMAC

The bat puppet eating an insect

Continuing on with our Creepy Halloween animal theme, we discovered the Bat. The students learned that a bat is a protected species and important to our world. They eat tons of pesky insects. Students also learned of Echolocation,  the Ultrasonic way a bat finds its prey. We watched a short video about how the bat sends out the sound waves and finds the insects.

bat puppet in flight

October is the month for spiders

The theme for October is spiders and bats. We started the month by learning about the creepy spider. The students learned that spiders can be dangerous so no touching. They learned how they are different than insects. Then students watched as a spider wrapped his food up in silk. It was fascinating.
With the help of a remote control Tarantula they could watch the spider walk with all of it's eight legs. As they were leaving the students could choose a colored spider ring to take home.

Counting Spiders

We counted spiders in math. Spiders danced their way across the screen to snippits of favorite scary movie music. The kids then counted and selected the correct number. If they were correct they were rewarded with various spooky noises.
Gotta love Halloween

Storytime

Creative writing was the focus of Science class for the last week of September. Students were able to choose and write about what they learned in SMAC and also what they liked about the fall season.
Choices were made either by touching the Smartboard or  choosing a picture. It was fun to see the boys write about how much they enjoyed eating. It was also true!! They did enjoy it.

Hands On Counting

I don't know who had the most fun in math this week; me or the kids. One focus of my math class is teaching one to one correspondence with numbers. For the older kids I found a tool from Lakeshore. Frogs on a log. It was a hit.

One of my star pupils showed off by using the frogs to add and then counting the total in her head and then choose the right number from a field of three. Way to go!!







For the younger ones I found Touch Math to be a good hands on approach to numbers.

Each number has a corresponding number of dots. The kids get to feel the shape of the 3D plastic numbers and then count the dots.

Conifers and Deciduous Trees

Science was about leaves and trees. Students were shown the difference between conifer and deciduous trees. One young man reached out and kissed the conifer needles. Ouch!!! He said it best, Hard Day.

We learned that deciduous trees have leaves that make food for the trees. In fall since the days begin to shorten the trees shut down food production and get ready for winter. The leaves turn colors and fall off the trees. Leaving the tree bare.

The fun came when the kids got pretend that they were the wind. A power link, wireless switch, fan and fall leaves can brighten the day of a child.

Sticky Week in SMAC

Last week was a totally sticky week in SMAC. The subject was apples. We talked about how apples grow. We discussed pollination and bees. Then finally we picked the apples and cooked them. Stickiness  came when we performed a science experiment. I asked the question "Does an apple feel the same after you cook it? Or does it feel different? It was fun watching the kids while they observed the feel of the apples. I have to admit that some of them really did not think the experiment was worth having to touch the squishy apples. I loved it, though my fingers were sticking together. After the experiment the students were able to choose if they would like to taste applesauce, apple juice, or an apple slice. The kids thought this was the very best part!

 

Fall is in the air!

This week science was all about the season of fall. We reviewed what a season was and watched as the earth as it revolved around the sun. One student knew what a season was. When asked "what is a season"? He immediately replied open season. Good work Dad, you trained him well.
We discussed events that happen in the fall like cold weather, fall leaves, apple picking, and starting back to school. A favorite with most of the students was pretending to drive the remote control school bus. I think some of them make excellent drivers!!

Transportation beware! New drivers on the loose.

apple counting in math

I do  love a good Dr. Suess book, how about you? This week in math students read "Ten Apples Up On Top" as the book was projected on a large screen. We played right along with those silly characters and counted apples. Students identified numbers 1-10 and counted out the apples in a one to one correspondence. Our younger classes played some intellitools games in which they practiced the concepts big and little and more and less.

Math is all around us

We are starting the year with a review of important math concepts such as

and

I am looking forward to seeing your kids.