Going The Distance

We've been spending A LOT of time on adding and subtracting with regrouping in math, so this week it's been nice to put those new skills to the test as we've revisited measuring in inches and in centimeters. We've been measuring everything height, width, distance, and even circumference using our rulers, meter sticks, and measuring tapes. 

One of our favorite things to measure was our JUMPING! Each of the giraffes took turns jumping from the tile to the rug and once they landed, their partners would measure their distance in inches and in centimeters. Some of the giraffes jumped over 5 feet! 

Next week, we are going to take our measuring skills outside where we will really put our measuring skills to the test :) Stay tuned!

Math Mania

While our last few units of math have revolved around learning different strategies for adding and subtracting, we are switching gears for our newest unit of study, which will revolve around measuring and telling time! While we started the week off with practicing time to the hour and half hour, we are now working towards our goal of telling time in 5-minute intervals. Here are some fun games you can play at home to help practice telling time:

ABCYa-Learn to Tell Time

Giraffe Dash-Time

We've also begun to practice measuring this week (and learned a lot about working together as a team!) We began making our tie fleece blankets for Project Linus during our Friday Centers, where we got a lot of practice measuring with a ruler, cutting, and tying. We also brought our own lovies to school for some extra helping hands :)

Mr. Fosher gave us some great tips for measuring and cutting our tabs!

We also worked together in groups during math time to create snowmen to winterize our bulletin board. The next day, we measured the different parts of our snowmen in inches using rulers and measuring tapes. 

Before we know it, there will be enough snow outside to make some real snowmen :) We can't wait to continue to make our blankets next week and practice a bit more with measuring and telling time. 

Surprise Visitors and More Measuring Madness!

On Thursday, we were beginning to get our room ready for the wax museum when we were visited by The Dot Fairy and Father Folktale! Both knew lots and lots about fairy tales and folk tales, and they told us a bit about the characters we were about to become and how their stories began!

After Father Folktale left to find The Dot Fairy, we got to measuring our wax museum portraits before hanging them up around the room. We measured their torsos, waists, necks, wrists, ankles, legs, arms, and heights! We did all of our measuring in inches using measuring tapes.

We recorded our measurements and began to think about how our measurements were different from the measurements we've already begun to do on ourselves. Next week, we will do a bit more measuring and compare all of our results!

Measuring Madness!

We began to really dive into measuring this week, as we started to make all sorts of measurements! 

We began by making  a list of personal references that we could look to when estimating different lengths. We worked with our table groups to find objects around our classroom that were about 1 inch,  1 foot, 1 yard, 1 centimeter, 1 decimeter, or 1 meter. While we discovered inch and foot-long objects were slightly larger than objects that were 1 centimeter or 1 decimeter, objects that were 1 yard long were slightly shorter than objects that were 1 centimeter. We used rulers and meter sticks to do our measuring. 

1 inch =2.54 centimeters

12 inches= 1 foot

10 centimeters=1 decimeter

12 inches= 3 feet= 1 yard

100 centimeters= 10 decimeters= 1 meter

we even used our place value knowledge to figure out that one kilometer equals 100,000 centimeters!

Later in the week, we did some measuring on ourselves using measuring tapes. We measured our heights, the lengths of our legs, arms, and hands, the circumference around our heads, and more! 

On Friday, we did some estimating using our new measuring knowledge. We worked with a partner and decided on three distances we would measure within our classroom. After we made our estimations, we measured the distances in yards using our measuring tapes. 

We will continue to do some measuring next week with our fairy tale characters as we prepare for the Wax Museum! 

Sharing Happiness and Cheer

In the days leading up to our Holiday Break, the giraffes were hard at work giving back to those in need. From cards, to gifts, to blankets, we were making sure everyone could find happiness and cheer this holiday season!

Project Linus

We put our new measuring skills to work in order to make tie fleece blankets and scarves to donate to Project Linus. Project Linus has donated over 5.7 million blankets in order to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are in need since 1995. "Blanketeers" have made all of these blankets by hand! We had so much fun becoming blanketeers ourselves and putting love and care into each inch of the blankets and scarves we created!

In order to make each of the blankets, we used yardsticks and rulers to cut the pieces of fleece to be the same size. Then, we cut each piece of fringe to be 4 inches long and tied each of the two pieces in a double knot to hold the blanket together. The two layers of fleece makes these blankets extra cozy! We made our blankets in all different sizes--some were great as "lovies" and others were great to keep warm!

Hey, what is he doing in there??

All together, we made 3 blankets and 10 scarves to donate to our local Project Linus chapter :) We hope our blankets bring lots of happiness to the children who receive them!

Cards for Safyre

We also learned of a little girl in need whose only wish for Christmas was to receive Christmas Cards. We sent along lots of cards from the Giraffe Class, and all together she has received hundreds of thousands of cards from all over the world! It will probably take her quite some time to get through all of those cards, but we hope each and every one brings her lots of joy.

Family Mission

We also worked together alongside Mrs. Healey's class to buy gifts for a local family in need. The Giraffes and The Owls bought gifts for a little girl as well as her family to ensure they had a happy holiday season!

Thank you to all of the giraffes and their families for the kindness and generosity you've shown to others this holiday season. I think each of your hearts grew three times in size, though they were already pretty big to begin with! I hope you know how much your kindness means to others, and you continue to show that kindness all year-round. Have the happiest of holidays, a wonderful vacation, and an amazing new year!