We love our Kindergarten Reading Buddies!

My class has had the privilege this year to work with Mrs. King's kindergarten class.  Every Thursday afternoon, our classes get together to read with each other.  It has been a great way for the kindergartners to show off their reading skills and has given my class a sense of pride when they know they are helping or teaching their buddy something new. 

When we were finishing up our geometry unit, I challenged my class to create an iPad game using the Tiny Tap app.  Their game had to teach the attributes of polygons.  They knew their target audience would be their kindergarten buddy.  The students worked so hard to find graphics that would be appealing to 5 and 6 year olds.  Talk about knowing your audience!  They were SO excited to finally get to show their buddy their game and help teach them about polygons.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. King asked if my class could teach her class how to use a storytelling app on the iPads.  My students were happy to oblige and enjoyed teaching their buddy all about the Puppet Pal app.  The partners worked together to create their own movies.  I couldn't help but smile as I watched the partners learn together.  It got a little wild and crazy, but there was a lot of learning taking place!  We look forward to seeing the kindergarteners' movies!

Overall, this has been a great experience for my class.  They truly treasure the 30 minutes a week that they spend with their new friends!

Thank you Mrs. King's Class for being our buddies!

Angry Bird Math Part 1

Angry Birds...one of the most popular gaming apps for kids of all ages.  Although I am not much into games on the iPad, I have to admit that I do enjoy some Angry Birds!  I was so excited when I saw this post on Pinterest.  Having an all-boy class, I knew this would be a great way to make geometry and measurement more engaging. 

After discussing attributes of the different 3-D solids and doing some hands-on construction with noodles and clay, I gave each student a "net" of an Angry Bird. I did not tell the students that they were getting a "net", they just thought they would be constructing a character from the popular game.  It was fun watching the boys put the birds and pigs together and discovering that they had actually created a model of a 3-D solid!  Once they figured it out, I introduced the math term, "net". 

All year long the boys have been begging for me to put Angry Birds on their iPads.  Since the nets were such a hit, I decided to take the Angry Birds concept and run with it.  The class has been bringing in boxes for the past week and our goal it to make a larger version of the Angry Bird game.  Of course we needed to do some "research" first, so their homework one night was to play Angry Birds and come back ready to discuss the math that they had to do.  Now that we are in a measurement unit, we will be measuring the "bricks" (boxes) and trying out different angles and birds to figure out how to make the birds travel the farthest and knock down the most bricks.  The boys will also be constructing different sling shots using various angles.  I will have a separate post once our game is constructed to share all their hard work.

It is amazing to see how many math concepts that can be taught through some bad piggies and angry birds! 

Mrs. Worthy