Money

 After learning about the desert we focused on learning about money (coins to be exact).  We:

Isaiah sorting coins into a cash register.

• Learned the names of the coins.
• Learned how much each coin is worth.
• Learned about the head and tail of a coin.
• Learned what was on the head and tail of each coin.
• Practiced trading smaller coins for larger ones (ex. 10 pennies make 1 dime). 
• We read a book called "Benny's Pennies" and then wrote our own version of the book.

Deserts

Sorry....I need to catch up.

While we were working on counting down to the 100th day of school we were also learning about deserts.  The kids really enjoyed learning about where they live and liked seeing things we talked about when driving around.  You would think they had never seen a cactus before. :)

During this unit we discovered two new "movies" at the library that we enjoy watching to find out information.  These movies were "The Magic School Bus" and "Reading Rainbow."  Each series had a great episode about the desert.

First we talked about cactus. 

Isaiah's Cactus Painting

Rachel's Cactus Painting

Then we started learning about animals that live in the desert.  We talked about:

Coyotes

Coyotes

Rattlesnakes

Rattlesnakes

Rachel's Finished Rattlesnake

Isaiah's Finished Rattlesnake

Desert Tortoise

Desert Tortoise

We also talked about javalinas.  We finished our desert unit with a field trip to the Zoo's Desert Trail.  We were able to see the ribs of a dead cactus and the holes the animals had made to live in.  We saw all of the animals we talked about, except for the javalinas who were on a routine check up with the vet at the time.  The kids were really upset about this.

We also practiced are map reading skills this day.

Rachel & Rebekah on the Desert Trail

Treyton, Carsten, Rachel, & Isaiah on the Desert Trail.  We went with some friends who were also studying the dessert.