Sheff Cup

Last week was the ever anticipated Sheff Cup.  Sheff Cup is almost as excited and important as Turkey Bowl.  Our first game was again Mrs. Corson's class.  We came out strong and won that game 7 - 2 which moved us into the finals.

In the finals we played Mrs. White's class.  Unfortunately we came up short in that game :(.   Every student played hard though and that's all I asked for!

Montgomery

Friday morning we pulled out of the school parking lot BRIGHT AND EARLY.  As always the kids were very excited and did not go back to sleep as they thought they would.

There was a lot of game playing going on while we traveled.

We arrived safely at the capitol, listened to our instructions, and began our tour.

A few of us laying in the Rotunda.

Listening to our guide explain a few of the paintings on the walls.

Following our tour a few of us posed for a quick picture on the capitol steps and then found a spot to enjoy a quick snack on Goat Hill.

Following our visit to the capitol we crossed the street and made our way to the Alabama State House.

We climbed several flights of stairs before making our way to the house chamber.  The students got to sit at the representatives desks and vote on a few bills.

Our last stop in downtown Montgomery was Archives.  We learned about Pre-Historic Alabama Indian tribes.

We also had an opportunity to spend some time in a military room.   

Our last stop for the day was at Old Alabama Towne.  We put first things first by eating lunch and playing!

We visited a tavern which is a very old hotel where pioneers lodged along their journey.

One of the two tavern bedrooms

 Another of the tavern bedrooms.  The mattresses were supported by ropes.  We learned that the phrase "sleep tight" came from this type of rope bed because the ropes needed to be tight in order to provide support.  They would sleep a minimum of 4 people in each bed.  We also learned that you would have to sleep with strangers.

 A place setting at the tavern.  Check out that fork!

We stopped by a barn on the way to a log cabin.  Our guide taught us a little about farming.

Our final stop for the day was this log cabin.  This was a typical home in Alabama during the 1800s.  The top of the house was a loft that would sleep at least 6 children.  

We had a great trip and learned a lot!

Theme

Last week we began focusing on a new CAFE strategy.  Our new strategy is Universal Theme.  We read a few picture books to learn how to determine what the universal theme of a book is.

The first book we read was Alexander Who's Not Going To Move.  We decided that the theme of that book was moving isn't too bad.  We also learned that every book has a theme.  We brainstormed a list of possible themes.

The next day we read The Empty Pot which taught us about integrity.

Creating Arrays

Last week students were given 12 products.  They were to create an array to match each product. 

Governent Review Game

Yesterday we played a review game to prepare for our Alabama History test.  We divided up into teams to see who had the most knowledge!

Team A is having a team discussion as they prepare to answer a question...

Team B is discussing their team's answer.

The final score was Team A 11 and Team B with 12 after a tie breaker.



Moving Day

We try to change seats in our classroom on the first school day of every month.  The kids came in yesterday so eager to move to their new seat! 

Moving in our classroom isn't easy because our desks are attached.  The students have to complete clean their desks out and then relocate using their chair as their moving vehicle.

Here are a few pictures of our chaos!

Following our move we came up with new names for our tables.  We used candy bars as our name theme.

Here is what they came up with...

Multiples, Factors, & Arrays

Yesterday we began our study of multiplication.  We began by finding multiples of several numbers and viewing their patterns.  A few of the patterns we noticed were that multiples of 5 end in 5 or 0, multiples of 2 end in an even digit, and multiples of 3 moved diagonally.

Today we moved further into our study of multiplication and began looking at arrays.  The students spent somet time exploring our classroom for objects that created an array.  We learned that arrays are made up of rows and columns that are even.  The dimensions of the array are the factors of our multiplication problem.

Johnathan is checking out the 3 x 6 array on the crate.

Grayson is drawing the 5 x 2 array of the drawers in the back of the room.

 Lawren is checking out the 2 x 2 array of the CAFE board.

Ask your child to find some things around your house or on your next grocery trip that come in an array.