Field Day!

A re-cap of some engaging school events!

 Mrs. Schneider popped in one afternoon to teach us a Junior Achievement lesson! She got us thinking about workers in the community and how important they are to everyone.

 We welcomed Adrian's mom to our classroom to celebrate the end of Adrian's Star Student week! Together they demonstrated how the pigment in a balloon seems to change as more air is added to the balloon. We noticed the balloon's color lighten as it stretched bigger and bigger! When Adrian let the air out of the balloon, the balloon was back to its original color!

 Adrian read us an adorable book about a colossal snowman who was bigger than any snowman we had EVER seen before! The town was afraid that when he melted, he would turn into a lake!

 How happy does our star student look in this picture?! We are so fortunate to have such a sweet, happy, and friendly boy in our class. Adrian is the kindest and most caring friend, and we are so lucky to know him!

 Mrs. Neumann dropped in for Junior Achievement lesson #2! This time, the children were challenged to think about unit vs. assembly production. One half of the class assembled paper donuts individually, one at a time. The other half of the class assembled paper donuts in an assembly format, each child completing a step.  Mrs. Neumann was the donut inspector and tallied up the results at the end of the lesson- which way do YOU think was more efficient?

 It was time to say goodbye to our beautiful butterflies! The children were excellent observers as our tiny caterpillars worked their way through their life cycle to adult form. They were especially interested to see the change in their bodies, and the new way they were eating- using a proboscis! We brought them into the courtyard one sunny afternoon and watched them flutter away. What a terrific learning experience for the children!

My Mathematical Super Stars

We are just zipping through the math curriculum this year! As the children and I approach the end of Unit 11, the children are working to strengthen their foundation in both multiplication and division! The are really enjoying solving story problems that involve combining sets of a given object, or dividing a set of objects into smaller equal groups. To take this skill one step FURTHER, the children are keeping a close eye out for any objects that are left over, or the REMAINDER! 

This is what our butterfly house looked like with all of our butterflies nestled safely inside their chrysalis.

Sure enough, our first butterfly emerged last Thursday! The rest were soon to follow! We borrowed some pineapple pieces for them to feast on after all of their hard work during the metamorphosis process!

It was Rahul's week to shine as our star student this week! We were excited to have his dad in for a visit last Friday afternoon!

Rahul and his dad got us thinking a lot about static electricity, especially in the air! They rubbed two balloons together, and then they held one near a volunteer's hair! Her hair was attracted to the balloon! We learned that this same type of static electricity is present in the clouds during a thunderstorm, and when it is great enough, we will hear or see lightning!

Rahul shared the story "The Emperor Penguin's New Clothes. The children were eager to discuss the story using the "Text Talk" words we have been practicing! They decided that the emperor penguin seemed pretty gullible to believe he was wearing an incredible new outfit, and he must have be mortified to find out otherwise!

Rahul is a super star for so many reasons! He works hard every day at school. He is respectful toward his classmates and his teacher. He is also very well traveled at such a young age!

Thank you Volunteers!

 Thank you to all of the wonderful parent volunteers! We are so grateful for everything you do to ensure that the students learn all that they can here at school, and enjoy themselves along the way!

Here is a fuzzy shot of the parent volunteers being welcomed to their breakfast celebration! The children were so happy to line the hallways and wave and say a quick thank you!

Thank you for all of the wonderful cards, paper flowers, gift cards, posters, and pictures that I received this week for Teacher Appreciation Week! I especially loved the class gift (above) full of such sweet words that the children selected to describe me! It brought a huge smile to my face and will bring great memories for years to come. Thank you!

We wrapped up our Arlington Heights unit this week! The children worked so hard to learn about the early native people, the early settlers, the original founders, businesses long ago, local landmarks, and how our town has grown and changed over time. They have become AH experts! I'm so proud!

Our text talk story of the week was Chato's Kitchen. The words we worked to infuse into our expanding vocabularies include: vibrated, reassured, cowered, suppressed, dumbfounded, and dismayed. The children completed a review of 32 of our past text talk vocabulary words, and they did great! It is so much fun watching the children's wheels spin as they look for ways to use these new challenging words!

 It was Angelica's week to shine! We enjoyed our visit from Mrs. Brancato and Angelica's little brother Vince. Angelica showed us a great experiment about gravity, and how objects drop at the same rate regardless of weight and size. She read a cute story about a little girl who wrote a story- which fit in perfectly with our writing unit on personal narratives!

The caterpillars have moved into their new home! Most of our caterpillars are now in the form of a chrysalis, and soon they will be butterflies! We can't wait!