Snow Delay....Spring Break?????

Another 2 hour late start...due to snow.  Feels like we should be getting ready for Winter Break, not Spring.  Anyhow, today we finished our Wizard of Oz unit with Emerald City Day.  We all wore green and only used green pencils, crayons, or markers to do our work:-)  We finished the day with green ice cream sundaes. 

Wednesday we did some color mixing.  Kids are great....all we did was mix colored water and they thought it was the coolest trick they had seen:-)  

Our Mixing Observations

Then we had two bags of skittles and graphed the rainbow.  We counted them out, compared the two amounts, and made math story problems and number sentences.

Today we also sent report cards home.  I really like to be able to go over it with students before they show it to their parents.  The 2 hour delay almost made that impossible, but I fit them all in.  I give the report card to the student.  Show them what scores to be looking at and what they mean and then we share our opinions and I read the comments to them (if they can't on their own).  Then I still dread the potential phone calls....hopefully spring break starting today will keep them to a minimum.  What do you all do with
the report card situation?

Happy Thursday,

Tooth Fairy Funness

My class is continuing our study of Wizard of Oz...but what I really want to share is what the 1st grade class across the hall did!  The first graders are studying dental health.  They have soaked an egg in coke, and sugar, and then watched the results.  The halls are going to be full of teeth experts by the end of the week.  Anyway the Tooth Fairy is an important part of learning about teeth.  Look at the bulletin board cuteness!




First they made adorable tooth fairies.  Skirts, for the girls, are made out of coffee filters.  And no outfit would be complete without the tooth belt buckle!

Angry?  Maybe she needs more teeth?

So sweet!

And now we know where are second set of teeth come from:-)

Sleeping dust....this fairy knows the sandman.

Disturbing.....

...

If I Had Ruby Slippers/Sneakers.....

 We started our mini-Wizard of Oz unit, from Abby@The Inspired Apple.  It is so fun, and I am always amazed by the amount of students who have never seen such a classic movie!I learned that many of them are not fans of musicals, unfortunately they have to endure my love of them:-)

This was the scene when we came into our classroom this morning.  Our animal friends were in shock from the scene!  (Hopefully none of them had anything to do with it.)









After we finished the movie, groups shared popcorn and discussed favorite parts, characters, scary parts, settings, etc.

 

Then we made ruby slippers or sneakers and thought of what we would do if we had our own pair.  We cut out a pattern for our shoes and used it to trace onto a red piece of paper.  (Practicing tracing and cutting is hard work for some of us, but go to practice.)

Finally we put all the pieces together and added red glitter.

Love the Nike Swoosh:-)  Also the long list of American Symbols his shoes would take him to see.

"I would tap my shoes three times so I wouls shrink.  I will go live in my Lego houses."

 

Happy Monday....3 more to go!
 

Readers Ask Questions

We started working on questioning during reading.  We read I Want My Hat Back...a hilarious book about a bear looking for a his hat.  We made questions before, during, and after reading.  Then went back and decided about whether or not we had found the answers to our questions. For such a simple text, repetitive text we got a lot of interesting questions. 

Next week is another four day week....and then Spring Break!!!  We will be doing a mini-Wizard of Oz unit, from Abby@The Inspired Apple.  We continued with questions about the book....which was hard because many of them said they already knew everything about it...because of course, the movie is always just like the book! 

And the marbles and tubes have finally gone home.  This afternoon, everyone who had their work done got to have freestyle time with the tubes and marbles.  It was so fun.   "Epic fail", "Yessssss", could be heard around the room.  Overheard another kid say, "hasn't this been the best day, yet?"  But I am 50 kinds of glad all the craziness is moving out!



 

This ramp starts at the back of the lamp...over the cubbies....

down to the ground....and loops through rolled up paper

Of course they wanted to take tubes home....

Goodbye Tubes!

Happy Thursday,

And Rollin Rollin Rollin....

We called today backwards day.  ELD students and SMART Readers (enought acronyms yet) leave the room in the afternoon, so our science was moved to the morning to give us lots of time for our marble inquiry.  (This meant Reader's Workshop was in the afternoon....and what a calm afternoon that makes:-) Here are some sample questions:  "Will the small see-through marble go as fast as a steel marble?"  "How many dominoes will a large marble knock over?"  "Which marble will go down an inclined plane the fastest?"  "How will the ramp affect how far the marble will go?"  "What marble will knock over the biggest stack of dominoes?"  Have I said yet how impressed I am with my class, this year!  WOW!

test...

Anyway, we started the day labeling the pages of our inquiry flipbook.  Then each partnership filled out their first three pages and brought it to me to check.  Once it all made sense they were to off to build and test their hypothesis.

record data...

love 3 partnerships crammed in the corner!

some smarty pants even made a table

more testing

Happy Wednesday,
 

K-2 Linky and Charlotte's Web All Together Now

Here is what I woke up!  Hello March??  It snowed today and we got a two hour late start....which means school started at 9:35 and everyone is happier with two more hours of sleep! 

If you are looking for a ton of amazing K-2 blogs, search no longer.  Jeannie @ Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a linky party for K-2 blogs to join in!  I have found so many new friends!

We are reading Charlotte's Web during our Reading Round-Up time.  I am not one who loves having the whole class read the same thing, at the same time.  Because they are always all over the place with reading speed.   But I am doing it, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Charlotte's Web we will finish reading by April 24th, when the new edition comes out.

Here is what I am doing to help organize kiddos who may need a little help to keep from falling behind.  I have planned for them to read a chapter a day.  I put the days and the chapters on the chart.  The final box in the row, is for when they start working on the questions that go along with the chapters.  Each student has initials on a sticky flag and as they work through the book, they keep track for themselves, and for me, of where they are.  Hopefully this will keep us working together, so we all finish in time for "Charlotte and Wilbur" Day.  How do you help students stay on track with assigned reading?


Happy Wednesday,

 

Rollin...Rollin...Rollin...

We started the day with a book about inclined planes.  Our school hallway even has two of them!  Then we worked on discovering what happens to a marble with short tubes vs long tubes.  The we added height and discovered how that would change the outcome of the marble.

Then we began Marble Roll Problems.  They gave us some ramp criteria....make a jump...go through a paper loop and land in a cup....cause the marble to knock over a domino at the end, etc.

Add a jump

Cross over a table

showing how to attach tape securely:-)

have marble land in a cup

after going through a paper loop

downhill and through a jump

add three turns (love the supply tubs as supports:-)

try adding a loop

Loads of fun!  Completely engaged!  Can't wait for more tomorrow! 
Happy Monday,





PS...I am not exactly sure how this works, but I think I want an invite, so I need others to want to be invited...pinerly