Monday and Tuesday's snapshot

we will be practicing the letter Xx this week and learning about its sound and words that either begin or end in /x/.

first, we learned the correct formation.

we also learned to play a Leprechaun Coin counting game.
I found these counting jars last year on A Special Kind of Class' site.

you can print them for free {here}.

the students identified the number on the jar and then counted out loud that number of coins onto the jar.

I used this for anecdotal notes for number recognition 1-10 and counting 1-to-1. it will be placed in the math center for the students to play in pairs after each student has learned what to do.

we also practiced writing Xx on the whiteboards.

in Room of Discovery today, the students learned how to make tissue paper flowers which were to be given to parents that could attend the Taco Tuesday Parent Luncheon for our book fair this week.

we have been discussing water pipes this week. today we talked about what water pipes do, where we can find them, etc... we also talked about what would happen to water pipes if they froze. there were a few students who experienced this first hand because of this crazy weather we have had this winter. 

we performed an experiment to better help the students understand what happens to water pipes when they freeze. each student filled their cup 1/2 full with water to represent a water tank and a straw to represent a water pipe.

 the students tested out their pipes by drinking water through the straw and noticed that the water ran freely. 

next, we placed our tanks and pipes in the freezer so that the water would freeze just like it does in cold weather. tomorrow we will check our tanks and pipes to see just exactly what happened!

in limited centers, the students created water pipe systems for their buildings by connecting drinking straws...

and we created straw art :)

an igloo

a shirt

a heart

couldn't resist ;)