Five for Friday Link Up!

I feel like I should do FIFTEEN or even FIFTY for Friday because it's been a while since my last post!

I have been crazy busy and here's why....

A blog post last weekend just wasn't going to happen. My hubby, myself, and our baby boy were ALL in a wedding! Our best friends got hitched! Our weekend was filled with wedding festivities. I'm telling you I was so busy I barely snapped any pictures! Luckily others did. Here's my family at the wedding...

It's blurry and I have some scary eyes but love this pic that was snapped by a friend.  We are dancing with our sleepy boy!

This kid loves the dance floor. 

New. Favorite. Picture. 

 The wedding festivities did not have a happy ending. The hubs and I  as well as many other members of the wedding party all got a NASTY stomach bug. No fun and another reason I have been gone from blogland.

We read The Giving Tree this week. This story makes me tear up every time. We talked about how characters change over time and analyzed the tree and the boy. Found this version on youtube which the kids enjoyed. 

This next idea could very well been a genius plan I had all along OR it could have been laziness on my part....haha! We have been working on measurement so I had the kids measure and draw out their OWN graphic organizer instead of pre-folding them like I usually do. This took a good 30 minutes or so and we really had to work step by step but they did great and they got some measurement practice in!

After making our own graphic organizers we discussed the different changes the tree and the boy went through and wrote a sentence to describe the character at the given time in the story. 

 We are also currently conducting a little science experiment in our classroom inspired by the story/riddle Pumpkin in a Jar. We have this story in a Houghton Miflin book we use at our school but if you follow the link it will take you to a very similar version.

We planted 3 seeds in a jar (and by jar I mean giant cheese puffs tub that's the same shape as a jar).

 Can't wait to see what happens!

I introduced measurement a couple weeks back. Before we measured anything I wanted to have a discussion about why standard units of measurement were important. I told them a story about how another teacher wanted a purple rug like ours and needed the measurements to see if it would fit. I divided my students into 5 groups. Each group used ONE students' foot to be their unit of measurement. I chose that student to make sure their were variety of sizes. Surprisingly no one noticed me walking around examining students' feet!  They worked together to trace, cut out, and measure a rug with their feet. 

                                        
I had them each record their measurements on a their slates.

Surprise! Surprise! We all had different measurements. I had them discuss and try and figure out why and then we watched How Big is A Foot.

We have also been singing this FABULOUS song created by Bethany over at Polka, Dots, and Sticky Glue Spots. It's sung to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine. So cute!

Finally my grandma wrote a book!!! It was released last week. If you or someone you know enjoys historical fiction you've got to grab a copy! Click HERE to read more about it and get a copy!