Wow that has been a quick month! I apologize for not posting since October. We've been busy with engineering activities, Parent-Teacher Conferences, new apps, games, and fun social studies activities. While my brief review below will give you some insight, I wish you all could have been in our room this past month. The conversations that occured were inspired, thoughtful and engaged. The kiddos definitely warmed my heart and made it smile!
1. Games
We are learning to use more of our DonorsChoose games. This past month we have learned how to use our math games (Sum Swamp, Head Full of Numbers, and the Osmo learning system game Tangrams) as well as the game Spot It! These have been great tools to use in teaching us how to play with one another, have good sportsmanship, and how to make play about learning and fun, not just about winning!
We got another chance to do a flashlight review! Mr. Rodriguez created review questions to help us practice our number bond skills. Kiddos were put into partners and then tasked with finding the problems hidden around the room, solving them together, and recording their answers. This was a great review that kept students engaged the entire time!
3. Engineering
Our school is a teaching-school. This means that we always have K-State students in classrooms and working with students as they work towards their various degrees. This semester the college decided to test out a new feature for their secondary education students. This involved being placed into a primary classroom to observe and teach two lessons. At first Mr. Chun was nervous but it was amazing how engaged he kept the students and how eye-opening the experience was for him. A lot goes into teaching little kiddos and setting up the basics they will carry with them throughout the rest of their schooling. The focus of the two lessons revolved around engineering and technology. Students investigated mystery items in the first lesson and were then tasked in the second lesson to engineer a bridge that would hold a small toy car as it drove over it. Students had to work together, test their creations and then problem solve as a team when their initial structures didn't work out. Seeing the excitement and and amount of hands-on problem solving that occurred, we will definitely be incorporating more engineering situations as the year progresses!
4. Super Social Studies!
Mr. Rodriguez has been teaching a unit on time long ago. This involves talking about the first settlers and people, how time is both the same and different now, as well as famous people that have helped shape our country. Throughout the unit students have learned about key vocabulary, interviews, and the hardships many people went through. To help keep students engaged Mr. Rodriguez included the following activities. (note: Students had a complete blast during these activities so beware! Viewing of these pictures may cause excitement and spark your imagination!)
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| Mrs. Dale stopped by and let us interview her. Students created questions and then filled out a venn diagram as she answered to document similarities and differences between her life and theirs. |
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| Students created boats and then tested to see if they could get them to sail without touching them. |
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| Students then had to see how many pilgrims they could fit and still get their boat to sail. |
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| We began wrapping up the unit with a little Trash Ball Review. Look at those team names! |
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| If teams answered correctly, they got to shoot a piece of trash from different spots to earn more points. |
Note: No trash was created during this activity. We used paper from our recycling bin and shot our "balls" back into the recycling bin. C'mon, we are definitely responsible and take care of the Earth!
5. Socktober in November
For the past couple of years I have encouraged my class to collect socks to donate to local shelters and persons in need. This year I was able to get the entire school on board. Partnering with our school's student leadership team, we were able to get each classroom a box to be used for donations and the leadership team collected socks every Wednesday. This allowed us to create class competitions. Individually, I set a goal for my kiddos in conjunction with the school goal that was set. I'm happy to say that at the time these pictures were taken both were close to meeting their goals.
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| Camp Leadership hung signs all around the school to encourage everyone to give! |
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| This was last week's amount. We surpassed our school goal this week! |
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| Thought that was an appropriate carrier.....I quickly found out it was not big enough! |
My heart is full because of this group :) Have a great rest of your week!
