100 Day...Leap Day...Hurray

In preparation for the 100th day of school, we have been collecting kindness.  We read a book called Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler.  And their class counted to 100 Acts of Kindness, so we thought we should make it a goal for the 100th day of school.  Each day we took home a few hearts and found kind things to do for our families.  Today, our final (but definitely not last) kindness heart was brought in!

Today was a busy! Day....and it's only Wednesday...how is that possible?  Did everyone take advantage of the TpT Leap Day Sale.  I found a few treasures...and managed to pull one activity together before my chickadees arrived today.  Traci @ Dragonflies in First had the cutest little frogs for a Leap Day Reading Activity.  We cut out a frog and a swimsuit.  Then designed our swimsuit fabric and put all the pieces together.  Next we drew a cover for the book our frog should be wearing and put it in the frog's hands.

Then we worked on 100 Days of School Activities.  As a class, we read 100 books.  Wrote down what we read and made a linking chain of our accomplishment. 




In the afternoon, we used a 1, a 0, and a 0 to make new creative designs. 

 A Volcano

 A face

An elephant

 A Water Slide

Half way through the week...time to start planning Read Across America Week.

Happy Wednesday,

Laurie

Science Experimenting....Contains Spoilers!

All experiences come in handy at some point or another.  While in high school, I briefly worked at TCBY (a frozen yogurt/ice cream shop).  Sometimes we would find out really interesting things...like what happens when you put candy in a cup of water.  You don't want to know what we found out about the Rainbow Cream flavor.  Anyway one of the things I learned is what happens to an M&M candy after about five minutes of being in a cup of water.  So do continue our learning about the Scientific Method, we used water and M&Ms. 

We started with our Scientific Process page.  Our question was, "What Happens When You Put an M&M in a glass of water?"  Next we created our hypothesis.  Most chickadees wrote "the color will come off," or "the M&M will melt."  We listed the materials we needed and the steps we would take to complete our experiment.

Then we started observing the changes.  First the color did come off and stayed at the bottom of the cup.  But then the real magic happened....not only does all the color come off and stay at the bottom....the M floats to the top of the water!

I wish I didn't have to blur their faces....the discovery of the floating m was priceless!  I knew it was going to happen, but not one kids hypothesized that and they were shocked.  So at the end of the day, half of them wanted to take home an extra paper, so they could make their parents perform the experiment.  AND wanted to retest to see if a Skittle would have the same results!  LOVE days like this!

Happy Tuesday,
Laurie

Science 101

Today we started some introduction to science and the scientific method. 

We brainstormed what we thought the definition of science is:-)



And what we know about scientists.

Then we made little versions of us as scientists.  We designed our lab coat and decided why we could be scientists.  We cut out a body shape and made it match ourselves, then added our lab coat to our attire.

More science tomorrow....
Happy Monday,
Laurie

Story Sunday and Pinning Permission

Some reading plans for the upcoming week.  We are beginning a science inquiry based exploration and need to start with learning the Scientific Process.  There are, surprisingly some books for that.

Investigating the Scientific Method with Max Axiom by Donald Lemke  It is a graphic novel that explains each part of the scientific method.

Mrs. Riley Bought Five Itchy Aardvarks and Other Painless Tricks for Memorizing Science Facts by Brian P. Cleary.  The whole book is full of helpful memory advice.  Towards the end is a section devoted to the Scientific Method.

And just for fun A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka.  Super cute, wordless book about a day playing ball with your dog.  Might be a good way for some of my kiddos who still struggle with the personal narrative concept.  They can focus on the story, without being weighed down by lots of words.








And finally please pin as free and as often as you like!

Click Laura Candler has more helpful information about pinning and a linky party with others who have would love you pinning from their blogs as well!

Happy Sunday,
Laurie

Kids Say

Sometimes kids just know the best thing to say!  I found this on the hall at school today.  5th grade students wrote about each other and took pictures of the things that were important to them.  This girl took a picture of the nameplate outside my door and wrote about her favorite teacher:-)  Made my day!

 Also, heard the term "Babysat by Books" yesterday, for the first time.  I am still processing what I think about it:-)  Would LOVE your thoughts on the phrase.

Happy Thursday,
Laurie

Winner Winner and a DIY Lightbulb Moment

Blogland is like a whole new family!  Thanks so much for following and leaving sweet comments. Congrats to Sara @ Smiling in Second Grade.  She has won herself a personalized tumbler from It's Your Party.  And congrats to Holly @ Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade who has won an word scarf from Storiarts.  I will be contacting you be e-mail soon.

Also I've got to share a crafty lightbulb moment.  My students have reading journals they write in, and turn in. Then I read what they wrote and write back.  I love reading what they have to say about reading.  What I don't love is trying to find the page they wrote to me on.  Little did I know how useful a piece of yarn could be!  Check this out.

Reading Response Journal and Yarn Book Mark

Yarn inside the journal

Bookmark in the journal...no more looking for pages!

Hope it helps you as much as me!
Again Happy Wednesday...sorry about the double post...I had to share!
Laurie

 

Speech Week and Subway Art Attempt

This week we have been presenting our American Symbol speeches.  Kids have been doing such a great job and I love it when parents assist, not complete student work! 

Then I was inspired by this reading sign from Technology Rocks Seriously

and thought we should make our own:-)

Happy Wednesday,
Laurie

Read Across America Week

I am loving all the fabulous "Read Across America" activities....as opposed to anything labeled, "Seuss.":-)  At our school, we have a week long celebration and teachers can choose to participate as much or as little as they like.
Each teacher has an overview of the week and then we send home a half sheet with students so they are in the loop too!

Pumpkin David

Potato Big Bad Wolf and Pigs

The past few years, we have had Book Character Day, but so many kids just wear Halloween costumes that we wanted to think of an alternative.  I had seen the cute pumpkin characters.....but acquiring pumpkins might be difficult at this time of year, so....here is what we found!  Literary Potatoes...turn a potato into your favorite book character!

I can't wait (although first we have to get through the 100th day!)

Happy Tuesday,
Laurie

For more Read Across America ideas check out the linky parties over at Mrs. Bainbridge's Class,  Learning With Mrs. Parker, and Little BlogFish

And just for fun...some cute past years of Book Character Day.