Telling Time

   Our current math unit has been focused on telling time, reading time, and calculating elapsed time.  Our class is motivated by a simple time game called "I have...Who has..."  I begin by placing a card with an analog clock stating the digital time.  Each student has a card with a clock face showing  a time.  They wait for this time to appear on the card under the projector and then they place their card as the next time.  We have been timing ourselves and so far our best time was 1 minute 17 seconds!

Pen Pals

   Our class was delighted by a surprise package from Reed Elementary School, in the Ladue School District!  Mrs. Rich's 3rd grade class wrote to our 3rd grade class and we have decided to be pen pals!    We are sending our return letters today and can't wait to keep writing back and forth!

Playing "Catch Up"

I apologize for the inconsistency in my blogs this month!  April and May are incredibly busy and state testing has begun, so our schedule has been thrown off!  However, there are many exciting experiences to share!
   Thank you to our 5th grade friends from Mrs. Scotino's class!  They helped answer our questions regarding the state test.  5S did a great job offering advice and encouragement!

Paper Bag Trading Game

   To introduce the idea of trade, I gave each student a paper bag.  I asked them to consider themselves an ambassador for their country and the resources inside the bag would be their country's tradeable resources.  Some countries had a variety of resources to trade, some may have few.  

   Countries began trading and we discussed how they felt at certain stages of trading.  By the end of trading I asked students to explain why countries trade.  Their answers were right on- to get basic needs and wants and to gain happiness within their country.  

Economics

   We began our last unit of Social Studies today-economics! I read aloud a book with the basic ideas of economics and learned that this class already has many ideas about this topic! 

CLAYMO today!

   Today's topic for CLAYMO was bullying! We discussed the definition of bullying, how to recognize bullying, and how to stop bullying.

Review Time

  We reviewed for our Social Studies Culture test in a fun way today!  I asked students to group up and create a game board.  When their board was complete, we used trivia questions from our unit to guide the games!