Picture Post

Guess what? We can be in lots of places at once! Today we were at school, in our neighborhood, in the city of Phoenix, in the state of Arizona, in the country USA, on planet Earth, in space/the solar system. This was an introduction to our next Social Studies unit about our country. Later we collectively build a puzzle map of the United States.
We remembered that Columbus came on a boat to America a long time ago. So our loosely connected science lesson (also known as Friday fun), was making a boat using only a piece of tin foil and then testing to see if it floated and how many blocks it took to sink it. A few boats sunk right away or were a shape that couldn't hold blocks, so then they got to try making their boat into a different shape to improve it - that is what learning is about! Most boats took 0-8 blocks to sink, but one child's boat needed 28 blocks to sink it!
No pictures from our math field trip today, but here are a few pictures of Thursday's field trip INSIDE the new gym ("The best field trip ever" I heard). Ms. VP told us what the rooms were going to be.
Grades K-4 look pretty dwarfed by the high wall of our sunny, new gym!
Enjoy the weekend! See you all at Open House next week.

Sight Word Hop

I love going to conferences and getting new ideas. Especially ones that are easy to make, easy to reuse, fun for children, and good for practice. Here is the sight word hop game:

Really?

We have been reading books about money and they tell us whose picture is on each coin. One student was excited to share with us that "My mom met Thomas Jefferson!"
That tells me that someone looks really good for their age.

Solomon's Request

More from last week... we heard the story of Solomon becoming King over Israel and how God came to him in a dream and said to ask for whatever he wanted. Before giving Solomon's request for wisdom, I posed the question to the class: if God said to ask for any one thing, what would you ask for? I wish I could have recorded the answers, but the following are what I remember.

My Daddy to be home every day

Have lots of Scooby Doo movies

Quack like a duck when I'm be old enough

Fly a helicopter by myself (No, it was not the helicopter pilot's son)

Obey God

Live in a big mansion and all my friends can come over

Stay home with my mom until Jesus comes back

Serve the Lord

Have a lemonade stand

I was amused, but also impressed. They did not all ask for things, but some wanted something more Godly, and some showed they valued relationships.

Making Learning Fun

Today's science lesson was a little silly, but lots of fun; we went to 'dental school' and as part of our training had to brush gigantic teeth. No pictures - sorry, but hopefully your child's tooth-shape name tag was a conversation starter and they told you about what they did. This was the first time I had tried this activity, but it was quite popular, so I'll likely do it again next year, with a few changes. Your children are such a wonderful class. I really enjoy trying new activities with them.

Here are a few pictures from last week.
This is an activity called Read the Room. Children go around and read whatever they can find anywhere in the classroom: posters, signs, charts, name tags... Add some funky glasses and a pointer, and it is quite fun.
Or, if you prefer, you can read the room through a magnifying glass.
There are lots of things to read in our room!
Here are some children practicing their sight words by forming the letters with playdoh.
Playing the time game (matching digital and analog clocks). "Game" is like a magic word. If you say "Match the clocks" then the activity is okay. If you say "This is a matching game" it's suddenly perceived with greater enthusiasm. Is that called manipulation? Garnering greater enthusiasm leads to more practice and learning. :)

Gung Hey Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year! (a few days late)
We found China on our globe, learned that they celebrate New Year's at a different time than we do. We learned how to say "Happy New Year" in Chinese, and we made a Chinese paper craft. The video clip doesn't show it very well, but after you drop them, they spin.

Winter Weather, Igloo, and Morning Message

I'm so glad today's cold weather is not normal for this area. It takes a little more time when you have to put coats on every recess. I zipped/unzipped more coats today than the rest of the year. Granted, if we had this weather more often, they might be a little more gifted at coats. :)

Thought I'd show you a piece of our morning routine: every day we start with a morning message. The format is usually quite consistent, so they can 'read' it early on in the year, though now they read most of the varying parts quite accurately as well. Some days we just read it so we know what's going to happen during the day. Other days we take a little time and review certain concepts. Today we first looked for our letter of the week (Kk), then we found our new sight word (here). Next we did some review of the -ing sound. We also searched for, and boxed in, other letter combinations that work together to make sounds (like er, ar, sh, th, and oo).
And now, the igloo. This is what it looked like today. Almost done.
This is how it 'magically' grows each day...
IT IS FINISHED! Well, we might try to add a doorway, depending on how many more jugs come in. I think it looks like it is starting to melt. All the children playing in and around it are gradually pushing the sides out, and that, coupled with gravity, is pulling the roof in. I hope it lasts until Open House though. Come in anytime to get a closer look!

100 Pictures

Well, not quite 100 pictures, but I was not very discriminatory in my selections. Here are some pictures of our 100th day celebration.

Estimating jars: we had to guess if each jar had 100, more than 100, or fewer than 100 blocks. Then we grouped the blocks into 10s to count. Make your estimates now...
And here you can see a recording sheet so you can check your estimates (sorry I missed this one when rotating pictures):
This is 100 baby steps (starting at the edge of the courtyard):
Starting from the same spot, this is 100 giant steps; we went across the courtyard, past the 7th and 8th grade rooms, and close to the office.
And the 100 day homework! We showed our 100 items, and then lined them up to measure them.
Lego and stickers:
Counting bears and unifix cubes:
If you look carefully, you can see the colorful toothpicks trying to blend into the carpet. They came in a really small bag, but put end to end, they went the farthest! They even had to curve around some furniture.
K'nex I think, socks (yes, I can easily bring 100 fun socks), and Lego. Some children enjoyed crawling under tables to complete their row of items.
Buttons and marbles:
Craisins and erasers:
Everyone thought this was so cool: 100 nails on one side of the board and 100 staples on the other.
100 times hitting a ball with a paddle in PE:

Crazy party hats with 100 stickers!

And every party needs a snack. We got to eat 100 things!
The fun continued the next day with Froot Loop necklaces. They actually had 101 pieces if you included the one tied on the end of the string. First we counted 100 pieces.
Then we strung them.
Then we wore them.
I don't think many, if any, necklaces made it home with 101 pieces still.

igloo

Getting closer to being finished...
And just in case, anyone didn't know what color sour milk turns, allow me to educate you. Yellow. Bright yellow actually. This is why we like lids. Also it prevents children from putting phonics dominoes into the milk jugs 'accidentally'.

Hmmm, How Many Igloo Posts Can We Have?

First, a picture from Bible yesterday. This diagrams what is going to happen to Goliath. Your child's retelling of the story is glued onto their picture. Enjoy
Today the igloo was a popular reading spot, as well as home to the phonics dominoes centerThe next layer is almost finished and I remembered to moved the glue gun before taking a picture this time! Before you scroll any farther, any guesses as to how many milk jugs that is so far?
Now every morning, we tally the new jugs...
And graph them by the color of their lids. Light blue and dark blue were tied for a while. White is also popular.