Spending and Saving

The first lessons in our current Social Studies unit helped us compare needs and wants. The second lesson in the unit is to explore how to save money and how to spend it. This week the students were given a job to do in the classroom. Once they had completed their jobs they would get paid a "salary" to put towards their needs and wants in the classroom. Here is our price list:

The top three items are the "needs" of the classroom. These needs are what they must buy everyday before they are allowed to buy any wants. The wants are all the items in green. To add to the experience, students were given a variety of jobs with a variety of salaries. Some students have just enough money to pay for their needs while others are able to save more. We have had some great discussion as a class about whether this is fair or not. Overall the kids have been extremely excited this week to do their job and receive their salary. 

Bankers handing out money as people finish their jobs. 

Letter Sorters are putting all the letter in the right spot. 

Custodian is making our floor shiny and clean!

Surprise Box continued...

We opened our box today, and we were VERY excited about the present inside. It was something that was going to really help us practice our descriptive writing. We were going to have to use all 5 senses (even our favorite sense of taste!)

A Surprise Box...

This present arrived in the classroom this morning:

It's a present for the kids, we are using it to work on our descriptive language. We have been working with adjectives and property words in both writing and science. In order for the students to find out what was in the box, they had to complete a descriptive writing sheet first. Check back later in the week to find out what was in the box!

A Week in Review

We had another great week! Enjoy some pictures from this week's activities.

Alvin and Chipmunks Fact Family Practice 

Kite Fact Family Craft 

Some finished fact family kites. 

How-To Draw a Leprechaun 

 Word Sort

Fast Money: Coin counting game 

More fast money game

9 in all Board Set-Up

9 in all directions 

Who is worth more to you than gold?

I asked our class this question and here are a few of their answers...

Some Good Clean Fun

Today we ditched the whiteboards and used shaving cream to practice math. It was a HUGE hit and loads of fun.

Science: Solids

Yesterday we explored properties of objects even more. We learned that solids are things that don't change shape when picked up or moved. We also discussed that scientists can compare solids by hardness. So we got our tray of objects and compared them by performing a scratch test.

Fact Families

Last week we learned some strategies for addition facts to 18. This week we are learning strategies for subtraction facts to 18. We started the week talking about Fact Families. Fact Families help to show students the different ways they can rearrange numbers to make sense. It always helps to relate addition to subtraction. We have many fun activities to help us practice.