Super Fun 'Dress Like A Farmer Day!'

We have been learning a lot about farms and farmers and animals that live on farms.  It has been very interesting.  The kids wrote informative papers about each of the animals we studied.  I wanted the kids to realize how important farms are to our lives, especially in Idaho.  They were surprised when I explained to them that most of the foods they ate for breakfast came from a farm.  One of the boys explained to me that his breakfast actually came from Ridleys.  I informed him that Ridleys got it from farmers.  He said, "I didn't even know how important farms are to my life."  They were surprised how many different kinds of crops grow on farms.  We went to five different stations and did activities that sort-of represent things you could do on farms.  It was so fun and they learned a lot!
We painted with vegetables so the kids could see the patterns in nature.

We practiced "sheering sheep" with balloons and shaving cream.  It was so cute how careful the kids were so they wouldn't hurt the "sheep".  No balloons were injured during the course of this activity.

We pretended to milk cows using rubber gloves.  It was super fun but I had to ask them to stop squirting each other.  Silly bunch of farmers.

 

We learned about dairy farming.  They were so amazed at the different things we get from milk.  I put heavy cream into baby food jars and the kids shook them until they made butter.  We ate the butter on rolls for snack.  They were amazed!

For math we caught ducklings in a pond that had numbers written on their bottoms.  The kids added the numbers together.  If they answered correctly they earned a pony bead.  They actually did a great job.  Good math kids!

The Great Potato Hunt!

We were so lucky, one of our parents brought a live chicken to look at.  It was awesome.  She told us all about how they live and how they are pretty messy but give awesome eggs.  It was really great. Thanks!

Dress Like a Farmer Day was a ton of fun and we learned so much cool stuff.  They kids are going to write about their experiences next week.  I loved that they made butter and we ate it.  They are great little farmers.  Thanks Parents for dressing them up.  They were adorable!

FIRST CLASS STORE

The kids have been earning money since the first day of school.  The store finally came for the Class Store.  One of my favorite parts of being a teacher is watching the kids figure out stuff.  I call it the "light bulb" moment.  It is so incredibly rewarding to watch them think through if they have enough money for what they want and budget their earnings.  I love watching them figure out if they have enough to buy a gift for their family members.  It is like I can see their little brains grow.  They have worked hard for the money and it is challenging for them to spend it.

PLACE VALUE IN MATH

We have been learning about regrouping ones to tens to hundreds.  We played a game called Pay Day.  We got paid every time the bell rang.  We added and regrouped all the way to $120.00.  It was awesome to watch the kids figure out when to trade ones for a ten stick and not give too many ones. They were sooooo excited when we got to trade ten ones for a ten stick and then ten ten sticks for a one-hundred flat.  They were thrilled to earn a one-hundred flat.  It was such a fun way to learn place value.

READING WITH MAGICAL READING FINGERS!

It is so fun to watch the kids use the "reading fingers".  They know the left to right motion of reading and you can watch them connect with individual words.  It is such a fun activity for new readers and a pat on the back for the proficient readers.

WORD WALL WORD HUNT!

The kids went on a word treasure hunt.  They found words hidden around the room and introduced them to us.  We all read and spelled the words together.  It was super fun reading!