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Oh boo. I have that dreaded Sunday night feeling again. Alas, my Spring Break has ended. I know that the next 6 weeks will fly by, but the beautiful weather we’ve had this week makes me long for summer!!
I’m linking up with the sweet Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin’s Laughings to tell you about the week ahead! :o)
First up, we’ll be starting animal adaptations and ecosystems in Science. This is one of my favorite Science units! I’m going to link up with my girls Amanda and Stacia at Collaboration Cuties to share some mentor texts and freebies I’ll be using in this unit.
The first book is one that Amanda shared today too! Great minds, I tell you.
What If You Had Animal Teeth?! is a great book to use when talking about adaptations and how animals’ parts help them survive. As I read the book, my students will fill in this activity (which you can grab for free of course!):
Another great book for adaptations is What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Although this is a book for “younger kids,” the older kids still love it. It covers a variety of parts, not just tails, so I have them fill in this interactive activity as we go (which again, you can grab for free):
The pages show a variety of different animals’ parts, so they should choose one to draw and predict. :o)
As I promised my pal AMC at Looking from Third to Fourth, I am going to spend some time doing some Earth Day Activities this year… every year, Earth Day falls on or around our state testing and I always neglect it… but because of the snow this year, or testing was pushed back! One of the standards in ecosystems is how changes in the environment affect an ecosystem, as well as what leads to extinction, so this is where I can tie in my Earth Day activities! One book that I love, and AMC does too, is The Great Kapok Tree.
Don’t have the book? I have two options for you! (And you should definitely choose at least one of these because it is such a great story!!)
You can watch/listen to the reading on YouTube:
Or you can have your students read it in a Reader’s Theater (found on Timeless Teacher Stuff)! My kids will definitely be performing it as a Reader’s Theater after I read it to them. :o) I will also have mine think of other animals that live in threatened environments. We can do a little bit of research on these animals with Britannica Elementary and then do a quick write about why these animals are threatened and what might can be done to help them. (As you can see, there will be quite a bit of integration going on this week!)
We have a few writing projects going on this week actually! We have also been working hard to research Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton (students could choose based on who they wanted to know more about after we learned about these women). We will write our biographies of these women this week. (Don’t forget to come back and see what we are doing with our BIOGRAPHIES for Workshop Wednesday, and link up your own ideas, too!)
We will also be writing back to our pen pals in New York (we’re paired up with Holly’s class from Fourth Grade Flipper)! Hopefully they will have some fun things to share about their Spring Breaks in their letters! I hope that Holly wants to be partners again next year. ;o) If not, I will have to find another class to be pen pals with because this has been so fun, and my kids have really enjoyed it! They have made a long distance friend, too- they are going to share addresses so they can keep writing even after this is over. How cool is that??
We are also beginning our measurement unit in math this week. It is my least favorite part of math. I know I’m not supposed to say that… but it’s true. Thankfully, Tabitha at Flapjack Educational Resources makes it more bearable with her fun interactive SmartBoard Pack!
I bought it last year and not only was it fun for my students, but it was fun for me, too! :o)
Phew. Did you make it this far?? It’s going to be a busy week. I’m tired already just thinking about it. Those of you who are just starting Spring Break… have a great one! Everyone else… keep on trucking! It’s almost summer! :o)
