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!

:)

Fast Five Friday

Hi all!

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!

2. Flashlight Review
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!)

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.

Students created boats and then tested to see if they could get them to sail without touching them.

Students then had to see how many pilgrims they could fit and still get their boat to sail.

We began wrapping up the unit with a little Trash Ball Review. Look at those team names!

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.

Camp Leadership hung signs all around the school to encourage everyone to give!

This was last week's amount. We surpassed our school goal this week!

Thought that was an appropriate carrier.....I quickly found out it was not big enough!

 

As you can see, we've been busy bees this past month. I promise to update more as the school year progresses. Here's hoping you all have been equally productive, happy, and joyous.

My heart is full because of this group :)  Have a great rest of your week!