Back to Work!

I shouldn't say this - I really shouldn't, but.....a 4 day weekend was almost too much.  It was super hard for me to get motivated on Monday night to go back to school.  Maybe it was because it was so close to Winter Break.  I don't know.  I just wanted one more day.  However, it was good to get back into the swing of things.

It also didn't hurt that my kids LOVED the ideas I did today for abbreviations.

Also that we are still ongoing with our Polar unit.  Today was the last day that we were "in" Antarctica.  Tomorrow we head north to the Arctic Circle!  Bye bye penguins, leopard seals, and Southern Ocean!  We ended our time there looking at Discovery Earth.  Neat place to visit.  If you haven't been there, it's definitely recommended!  They have video clips about the different areas of the world.  

We also did a science experiment I got from "Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears." (see previous post).   It's about how the snow compacts to ice and that even though Antarctica only gets 3 inches of snow a year, because it never gets above freezing...it never melts.  Each year the previous year's snow gets compacted (pressed down) into an icy layer.  You can do this experiment with snow.  Our snow has melted.  We did it with marshmallows.

I wish I would have thought to taken pictures!

Let's just say that 10 mini marshmallows flattened (10 years of snow) gave the kids a good impression of what it's like!

So, on to abbreviations.  Everything seems to have a polar theme, doesn't it?  I love it when themes go together so well!  I am still loving this unit!  

I had these speech bubbles I bought at Walmart at the beginning of the year, knowing I'd find a use for them.  Well, I did today!  I made a "master list" of common abbreviations, including math ones I knew my kids would get to later this year, and wrote each one on a speech bubble.

I handed out the speech bubbles at random.  The kids had to look at their bubble so if I said a word and they thought it was their abbreviation, they were to stand up and silently (like a cartoon) show their speech bubble like they were talking.

It's the quietest I have EVER heard my class!!!!

Again, not thinking and not taking pictures.  I will try to take some tomorrow (they want to play it again) and add it to this post!

The next big "hit" was playing an "I Have/Who Has" game with abbreviations called "Shh! Don't Disturb the Sleeping Bear!" (Teacher's Notebook)

You can click on the picture to find it on TpT.

I'm introducing this one tomorrow:  "Waddle It Stands For" (Teacher's Notebook link)

I'm hoping it's just as big of a hit.

Click on any picture above to take you to my teacher store to download.  I am trying to work on the speech bubble idea and get it finished so I can add it to this post as a freebie!  Make sure you check back later this week when I *hopefully* will have it up!