Friday Fast 5 Catch-Up

It's that time! Here's 5 quick recaps of what we have done in our class recently....I'm even throwing in a picture of me.

That's right.....that IS a packet of ketchup. If you didn't read the title and immediately think of ketchup I bet you will next time. This picture will pop into your mind every time you read catch-up now. You're welcome! Now let's get to work!

Each month we introduce a new author to our class. This author becomes a close friend as the month goes along. We start to see similarities in their writing and illustrating techniques. We also get to become close friends with the characters.

Last month we focused on Bill Martin Jr. This month we are becoming fast friends with Eric Carle and his wonderful colors!

One of my favorite ways to review our math concepts with my kiddos is to break out the flashlights, turn the lights off, and hunt for our problems. We are still using the school math curriculum but printing the questions off and hiding them around the room is a lot more interesting than working from a book.

The kiddos had a blast. They worked well with their partners, managed the flashlights and navigating the room well, and the discussions I heard about the problems warmed my heart. We will definitely be reviewing by flashlight again this year!

Does this really even need explaining? GoNoodle brain breaks are the best kind! My kids already have their favorites: Slo-Motion Machine (Koo Koo Kanga Roo), Milkshake (Koo Koo Kanga Roo), and Don't Read Like a Robot (Blazer Fresh)

Watch us in action!

Comment below you favorite GoNoodle brain break! We'd love to try it out!

 We have started our first science unit and we are investigating Sound. I am loving the way our updated FOSS curriculum is set-up. Each investigation part is driven by a focus question that students then try and solve. This unit on sound has taught us that sound is caused by vibrations. We've also gotten a chance to explore different sound sources.

We finished off this week doing a little listening outside in our learning garden to figure out what sounds we could hear outside. We then discussed what the sources of those sounds could be. Thanks to the Kansas weather for cooperating with us! :)

https://theglobalreadaloud.com/

Last but not least, we began our journey with the Global Read Aloud. This is my first time joining this initiative but I can tell you I am hooked. If you are wanting more information be sure to clock on the header to visit the website. My kids are loving the idea of kids and classes all over the world reading the same books. After we read the specified chapters this week, groups discussed the guided questions. Check out our answers.

Q1. Why doesn't Sophie leave the window when she sees something strange?

Q2. Why doesn't Sophie wake the other children?

Q3. What were Sophie's first impressions of the giant?

Q4. What is one character trait you would give Sophie?

Q4. What is one character trait you would give Sophie?

Be sure to follow along with our journey, as well as readers around the world, as we explore this story. If you're on Twitter, follow the hastags #GRABFG and #BGFslowchat to join in the fun!

As you can see, we've had an awesome start to our year! Be sure to check-in and let us know how your start has been. We love getting comments!

Kid Bloggin' Thursday

From the teacher: Hey all! Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Our class worked in groups to give you this great blog post. This week groups had the responsibility of choosing topics, writing about their topic, taking pictures, adding the blog logo AND typing their content! They did amazing. Check out what we've been up to lately!

 
We are going to do a play.We are going to use costumes.We are going to do the play for our class.We have puppets for the play.In one of the plays we drop an apple on sum one head.In one of the plays Gabriel is a ant.

This month we have a book tournament.The Pigeon Needs A Bath Is v.s I Can Read With My Eyes Shut. The tournament is big.There are a lot of books.Can I Play Too beat Happy Birthday To You.

There are red ,blue ,green I pods. The iPods are fun! The iPods are pretty. They tell weather.we use them for listening center.

Typed by the teacher Flowers have foots. Flowers are pretty. Flowers have stems. Flowers also journal. We planted rye grass. We love science!! Now we are planting wheat.

Our In-School Snow Day

If your area is anything like ours then you've had a few encounters with snow already. I'm going to be completely honest, I am over the snow and winter already. Now, I realize we still have a good amount of winter left. I'm not crazy. I understand that. However, I would be completely happy with the cold weather if we could hold off on any more snow. We all know what happens when it snows....
- playgrounds get covered up
- we have inside recess for days (maybe even weeks)
- we may get a snow day
-we may not get a snow day....when we totally should have

The last scenario was our reality last week. The weather wasn't great but we still had school. I'll admit that it could have been much worse but the conditions weren't the best for continuing to require school to be in session. So what do you do when you should be having a snow day but are stuck in school? Well, you have an in-school snow day of course!

Since we couldn't be out in the snow all day we brought it in and made the whole day focused around snow! We started the day doing a little persuasive writing during our journal time.

Then we did a little expository writing. To connect with our previous unit on sequence we wrote the directions to making a snowman. Students were challenged with giving detailed directions to correctly sequence the building of a snowman. We then tried to follow these directions to see if they would result in a snowman.

We learned that when giving directions we need to be very specific. So we tried again as a class and found success!

During reading we worked through a ton of books that were snow related.

Then we had science. Student groups were tasked with forming a plan to melt a cup of snow. Their goal was to find the fastest method. Groups each came up with a different plan of attack.

After plans were made groups were given their cup of snow and began. It got intense extremely quickly!

Afterwards groups went around and observed how other tables' methods how worked. We then discussed what worked best and why.

When it came to math, we kept with the snow theme and had a snow ball fight! Now, don't worry. This was an indoor fight and no I didn't bring snow in for this. I don't think that would go over well with a lot of people. So I took an idea from a wonderful colleague Ashley Smith and we used paper to write our math facts. We then tossed our snow balls around. Students then found a snow ball, solved the equation and wrote their answer down. They then crumbled their snowball and threw it again. We will definitely be having more inside snowball fights!

So while I'm not a huge fan of school days when I consider the weather to warrant a snow day....I can say that we will be prepared if another one rolls around!

:)

Bananas, Vacations, and More!

My how the summer is flying by! While I had planned on posting once a week that just didn't seem to happen. We started some new projects.. I had a vacation thrown in there and with getting everything ready for a week-long absence I completely overlooked updating you all with our wonderful pieces of work.

Two weeks ago my kiddos took on the tower challenge. They were tasked with building a tower that was at least 1 meter tall and could hold some weight. They were judged in three different categories: height (10 points possible), appearance (5 points possible), and weight (10 points possible). The students soon realized that the challenge was being able to fulfill those requirements when only given 30 straws, 50 paperclips, and masking tape. Students had three periods to work on it. Monday was used as a planning/building day. Judging took place the last ten minutes of the day on Friday. We had a little difficulty judging the weight but thanks to the brilliant minds of the students we came up with two different options. They could have a ziploc bag hung or a paper clip box sat on their structure. We then added pennies in groups of 5 until the structure could no longer handle it. After everything was said, done, and assigned point values the winners were selected and posted!

The Tower Challenge Winners!

Last week I went on a glorious vacation! It was a week worth of relaxing, beach time, puzzles, driving, sight seeing, and great company! There is no place like Cape Hatteras and I can't wait to go back.

Fresh crabs!

Photo Op with my mama!

While I was away enjoying all the beauty that Hatteras could offer, my kids were at school powering through another science experiment. Previously, they tried to both speed up and slow down the ripening/rotting processes of bananas. This time around there were just observing the rotting process brought on by the addition of yeast. They got to see how the bananas changed and even witness some chemical changes as the bananas produced gas in their bags.

I am now back from vacation and ready for my last week here. I'll be sad to be away from my kids in the mornings but they are getting a healthy dose of change and another great teacher. (Lucky them!) For this last week we are focusing on engineering. Groups have been switched around a little. They were then tasked with creating a K'Nex creature. Within their group they split the responsibliites. Architects are the only members allowed to look at the plans/instructions. It is their job to then go back to their groups and give the builders directions. Builders are the only members allowed to actually touch the materials. It has been an eye opening experience and today is only the first day. Students learned how important it is to give good directions and how criticcal it is to be able to follow these directions.

Day 1 Progress

Day 1 Progress

I am positive they will learn how to better work with each other. I am also positive they will finish these creatures.....eventually.  :)

Here's to a 4-day camp week filled with building, talking, listening, and working together!