Crayons & Keyboards: Shape Design Fun and Close Reading

For the past week, we've been learning about geometry. We've reviewed our basic, plane/2D shapes (triangle, square, rectangle, circle, hexagon, rhombus, etc.) and have moved on to solid figures/3D shapes like the sphere, rectangular prism, cube, cone, cylinder, etc. We had a great time finding and naming things found in our environment featuring these 3D shapes. The kiddos came up with many I had never even considered! (I noticed a lot of my kiddos coming from farm families used farm-themed objects like corn heads, grain bins, silos, augers, and PTO shafts on tractors/equipment. Must have harvest on the brain!) :)

During our early dismiss last Wednesday, the kiddos had a chance to come up with their own designs using 2D shapes. They were then asked to trace and color their designs and fill in how many of each kind of shape they used in a tally chart. Here are some scenes from last week:

Last week, we also began a component of our literacy study, called close reading. During close reading, students are partnered up and share a text between them. This is a text we have read a couple of times together as a class using a big book. When we close read, students are asked to find specific information or features within the text. They read with their partner in a variety of ways, sometimes choral reading (reading together), sometimes parrot reading (one partner reads and the other repeats), and sometimes taking turns one or two sentences at a time.