It's here! It's here! The excitement is like waking up on Christmas morning or your birthday! We have successfully made it to 2017! That means we are half way through the school year. We have used half of our learning time. We only have half our learning time left! Oh no! That turned downhill quickly! As I race to fit as much learning, fun, teamwork, and happiness into the rest of the year I wanted to pop in and give you a quick glance at our first day back. We crammed a ton in our day today and I can't wait to show you the awesome-sauce that resulted!
Backstory: Over break I worked on updating 7/8 of our school's iPad carts as well as working on getting 2 new carts setup. In setting up these new carts I got to inbox 60 new iPads. Can we say Christmas and birthday all wrapped into one! Well, let's just say my enthusiasm quickly fled when I realized the cardboard jungle I had then created.
So what was I to do with all of those boxes? Of course, I could just put them in the recycling but why not get some use out of them? Bring on the morning of challenges.
We started by challenging each table to try and create the tallest structure using the materials provided (each group received the same materials: 1 big box, 2 trays, 10 individual boxes). It was amazing to see them trying to figure out how to stack and stand without using tape.
Our Round 1 results are as followed:
So I walked around and measure these amazing structures. They were so excited thinking it was a competition against the other groups. Ha! Little did they know my plan was for them to compete against themselves. We discussed how different groups had tried different techniques and what they had noticed during the process. Then I challenged them to build another structure that was taller than the one they had in front of them. Their task: to beat themselves! Boy did they deliver!
Each group was able to beat the height of their first structures! How cool is that!
For our 3rd and final challenge teams were tasked with creating the strongest structure. This would be tested with classroom textbooks. Let the building begin!
In the end, we had two structures that tied at 24 books and counting. We simply ran out of time.
This was one of the best challenges that simply came out of nowhere. Students were challenged, resourceful, and had to work together. Who knew a box could be so fun?
Here's to imagination, creation, and collaboration!
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! :)
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!
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.
Hey everyone! I hope you are as excited about this nice weather as we are! I also hope you are in a place that is getting a break in the cold where you get to enjoy this nice weather. Today the kids are taking over the blog!
Writing is when we write. We need to write nice. We get paper to write on. We write friendly letters in writing. We do writing at 2:40.
Sometimes we eat pizza pot pie. You tack a pot pie. we make pizza. We git to pick our food sometimes. we like pizza pot pie
We have desidid to do dirt. At dirt we all read. We swich out are books an Wensday. We get new books. We do it evary day. We love dirt. We do dirt on the and uf the day.
The things we do for indoor rececess are games. We play any game we want. We play Race To The Tresure. Another game is Ants In The Pants. We play with blocks. We do indoor reccess when we can't go out side. One of the games is Hoot Owl Hoot.
