We had a great day!

 First, a few pictures of Shapey from last week.  Shapey lives on planet Zoop and he wrote a letter telling my class that he wanted to make a picture of himself for his dad's birthday, but he hurt his arm and couldn't draw, so he just told us what shapes to use (1 pentagon, 4 squares, 2 rhombuses, 4 circles, 5 rectangles, 2 triangles), that he was symmetrical, and that his nose had 4 sizes.  Then everyone went to work.  It was a bit challenging, but we had fun and everyone's picture turned out differently, whether they looked like a cat, had 3 eyes...
  

And now onto today's awesomeness:

We took the letters in Thanksgiving and built words.  This is the first time we've tried this type of activity this year.  Look how many words your brilliant children made!

During math centers we made solid shapes (cubes, rectangular prisms, pyramids, triangular prisms, even 1 pentagonal prism) from marshmallows and toothpicks.

 

 A rare picture of myself; reading a fun Thanksgiving story.

 Here we are on our walking field trip through our school's neighborhood .

And now we are ready to tally the different types of transportation that drive by.  We got pretty enthusiastic.

 A bus driver (my dad) came and read a familiar bus story.

 Science time: can you spot the light source?

 Looking carefully at the photo mosaic of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

I hope your day was as amazing as ours was!

Zoo Field Trip (Many Pictures)

Giraffes!

 They had as much fun running/climbing/playing as they did looking at animals.

 Looking at a rhino camouflaged in the back

 Cute otters.

 I matched the komodo dragon!

 

See?  It has a splint on its right arm, too!  Although technically the komodo dragon merely suffers from joint pain, not a broken arm.

 Hanging around...

 Cute little squirrel monkeys.  Ask your child what they ate.

 Class picture!

 Spider web time.

 Bandaid time...

 Relaxing by the life-size elephants

 Petting zoo.  I was actually impressed by how long they were content to be in here brushing the goats.

 brushing its beard

By the end of the day everyone was hot (it was 90*) and tired.  Everyone should sleep well tonight.  :)

Thanks to the moms and dad who came, chauffeured children, got us into the zoo, wrangled children,  carried the cooler, etc! 

Fire Station Field Trip

We enjoyed our field trip to Station 5.  First we had a tour, where we saw the kitchen, the comfy chairs, and the workout room.  Some children tried lifting a weight.

Then we went outside and got a tour of the firetruck. 

 We got to try to hold some of their tools: a sledgehammer

 and whatever this one is called - I don't remember.

 Everyone got a chance to try on some gear.

 This picture makes me laugh.

 One of the firemen dressed up in all the gear so we could see it.  He sounded like Darth Vader.

 Everyone got a chance to sit inside the truck.

 And spray the hose.

(I got a little wet)

 The water on the ground was equally fascinating.

The sirens told us goodbye.

Field Trip to the recycling center

 This picnic table is made from recycled plastic bags mixed with sawdust!

Here we can see a bunch of trash coming in.

 Inside the actual plant here.  It was very LOUD and dusty.

Video clip:

 

 Mr. Alvarez was explaining how the machines worked, shaking and sorting.

 Group picture at the end!