Pi Day Revisited

Hi all I am typing this post from my deck as it is a beautiful March day in Jersey.  I wanted to keep everyone posted on how my Pi Day activities went. 


First we created our Pi Day review plates to remind us of the vocabulary, the formula for circumference, and the meaning of the terms.  This activity took about a 1/2 hour to complete, though the most creative (and slowest working) kids took a little longer.

Here a student is using the Vocabulary section of their
Math Binder to review the terms

A Pi (pie) plate in progress

Finished Pi plates

A closer view

A quick and easy display

In the afternoon we participated in Edible Pi Day Centers (available on TPT Here).  The activities were center-based and had the students measuring the diameter of various desserts and using that information to find the diameter and circumference.  Rule number one, do NOT spend so much time planning that you leave buying the actual pies until the night before. Cut to me in three different grocery stores at 11:00 the night before Pi Day-I've learned from that mistake. 


With Oreos, Peanut Butter Cups, Round Cakes and Pies in hand we started our centers.  Each center had center cards restating the directions for the students (included in the TPT packet). 

Here two of my darlings are reading the directions before starting
at the pie station (YEAH for reading directions!)

This is an image of one of the center cards
for the Apple Pie center. 

The activity guide in progress.

Here are some pictures of us working...

and eating our way through the centers.

Oreo diameter-YUM!

Have you ever measured the diameter of a Peanut Butter Cup?
I usually just eat them

Overall this was a GREAT way to celebrate Pi Day and to have some activities that were super engaging, educational, and of course YUMMY!

How did you celebrate Pi Day? I'd love to hear from you!


-Damien of The Reading Buddies

I'd like to thank the Academy....

We have just been awarded the THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD by Stacy Johnson from 

Mrs. Johnson's First Grade !  

YEAH!

Thanks so much for the recognition.  In order to accept this award I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself, but since this is a 2 person blog I guess that means 3 facts each and 1 shared.


Here we go...


1. Both Kelly and I have been in our current positions for 6 years.
2. One of us has two children and one of us has two dogs. 
3. We are both addicted to Dance Moms (a definite guilty pleasure)
4. We both absolutely LOVE everything Harry Potter (I went to Harry Potter World this past Christmas)
5. I am currently reading The Hunger Games and have convinced Kelly that she must read it.
6. Our favorite outing is cheese and chocolate fondue at our local Melting Pot.
7. Our classrooms are across the hall and our houses are around the corner (both by coincidence).


As award recipients there are alot of responsibilities.  We are going to pass this award on to a few of our favorite blogs:


Mrs. Orman's Classroom


Erica Bohrer's First Grade


My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher


Thanks so much for the recognition.  As new bloggers this totally made our day!

St. Patrick's Day

March 13, 2012

Can't wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by eating breads
 from around the world. Our school district is strict about eating foods of minimal nutrition so that leaves out graphing good old Lucky Charms!  So I decided to combine map skills with math and of course eating.  The kiddos get to eat breads from around the world while locating them on a map of the world.  Looking forward to the Irish Soda bread. 

Check out the unit on my tpt.

St. Patrick's Day bread tasting


Here is another picture from my Goldilocks activity.  I love graphing and eating!  The kiddos never forget these activites!

Goldilocks Math & LA Unit

For the past week and a half we have been examining everything Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I began the unit by reading the story to my class and attending a PFA sponsored puppet show.  After we were well versed in the story we made Goldilocks and Baby Bear (shown below) inspired by a picture I saw on the Glyph Girls blog at www.glyphgirls.blogspot.com.  I used scrapbook paper for Goldi's bows and Baby Bear's bib.  The girls loved curling Goldi's...well...locks and the boys had a blast making Baby Bear.

Our bulletin board displaying Goldi and her favorite bear

This activity pretty much hooked my kids into all things Goldilocks.  From there we retold the story, ate and graphed our porridge preferences (or lack there of).  I brought in three different flavors of Teddy Grams and gave each child a pre-filled (and differentiated) cup that they graphed using their mats.  They then conveyed that information in a bar graph.

We also spent some time talking about Goldilock's character traits.  I gave my students 6 words (3 of which applied to Ms. Locks) and asked them to identify which words fit Goldilocks and what information they can provide from the story to support their responses. 

How cute is Goldi?

One of the days each students brought in their stuffed bear to assist them in all their Goldilocks activities.  This was so adorable that it was the talk of the school.  

All these activities and more can be found at our TPT Store by clicking on the following link.  The Reading Buddies on TPT

Enjoy!

-Kel

Edible Pi Day Centers

Joining in to my first linky party by linking up with Making it as a Middle School Teacher for a Pi Day Linky Party. So excited to be joining the party!

My kiddos and I love to eat our work.  Seriously, we are often finding ways to work food into our daily lessons.  A growing 5th grader (and a 5th grade teacher) has got to eat.  I just created and posted some Pi Day activities at our TPT Store that combine Math, food, and centers all in one fun bundle.  


Our first step was a review of circumference, radius, and diameter.  We did so by taking paper plates and making them into paper pies.  After they were decorated we labeled and measured the radius, diameter, and circumference. 

After coloring the plate brown and adding pie slits the math portion began

In the afternoon we will go into our centers and measure the circumference of our edible items.  My math always has a writing piece incorporated, so they will also write about their learning. After the 4 math centers, it is time for apple pie a la mode!


YUM! 
-Damien 


For my math Edible Pi Day Centers check out our TPT Store at this link: Edible Pi Day Centers

Tweets from Hogwarts

This wonderful activity was something I found on Tracee Orman's Teacher's Pay Teachers page.  It is a great activity guide that allows the students to Tweet as people from history or as the characters from their novels.  We used this activity in the middle of our core novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The students were assigned a character and worked independently on creating a tweet from that character based on the events of the chapter.  We used Tracee's planning page for this and it worked brilliantly.  Then, as a group the students decided on two Tweets to send out to the Twitter-verse.

Here are just two of our Tweets:

Here are the two tweets that the Harry group decided on sending. 

Here are two Tweets from Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

My principal, a HUGE Twitter fan, came in during this activity and was immediately in love with it.  The kids can't wait to Tweet again.  I am going to have them Tweet once as a character and then let another character Tweet back a response.

Make sure to check out Tracee's Teacher's Pay Teachers store at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Tracee-Orman

-Damien

Dr. Seuss Book Bar Graph

Hello bloggers!
Below I shared a googledocs document that is great to use on Dr. Seuss Day or during a Dr. Seuss unit of study.  The students survey each other on their favorite Dr. Seuss Book and graphed the results. After the graph is created there are some questions that require the kids to analyze the data they have just collected. Lastly, they convert the bar graph into the tally graph.

Math and Reading hand-in-hand, it doesn't get any better than that!

-Kel

Dr. Seuss Books Bar Graph