Celebrating Earth Day!

One of the things that I feel so passionate about is teaching kids lessons that go beyond the classroom! This week we have been learning about the importance of taking care of the Earth and doing our part. We read many great books and also created some fun projects. Students were invited to dress up as a "Recycled Superhero", which included recycled materials as part of their costume. They did a great job being really creative! We did a recycling relay race, sorting "garbage items" into different types of recyclables (paper, plastic, cardboard, aluminum, and metal). Students tried to identify the recycle symbol, recall what type of material it was made out of, then race to put it into the recycle bin! Each student received a pin that made them an official "Planet Protector!" I hope to have planted a seed in each student this week that hopefully will continue to grow and help make them care about the environment. So if they go home and hound you about getting a recycling bin or turning the lights off...they have learned the lesson well and now it's your job to lead by example!

Spring Celebration

These pictures are a little overdue, but too cute to not post! We had a great Spring Celebration day and were so thankful for our parents, aunts, and grandparents that came to visit and volunteer on this special day. Thanks for your help! We rotated through various fun centers, including dying eggs (which was a HUGE hit!!). Students hunted for plastic eggs on the playground, looking for one of each number. Then, we enjoyed a picnic lunch outside. It was a great day!

Eric Carle Videos

Happy Eric Carle Day!!! Here's a quick look into our fun relay game!

Eric Carle Celebration Day!

We had a great culminating celebration of our beloved author, Eric Carle! Students were invited to dress as their favorite Eric Carle character. We rotated through different fun centers. We started our day by playing Eric Carle bingo, with all of his book titles and enjoyed pancakes too! Then we played a game on the "smart board" about different animals. At our third center, we read the book Mr. Seahorse, by Eric Carle and learned a lot about different daddy animals that help take care of their eggs and babies. Students used colored tissue paper strips to make their seahorse art. Lastly, students went outside to play a Very Hungry Caterpillar relay game. They had a BLAST!! Each student raced another student in the first relay game and then we played again with partners. We enjoyed green cupcakes (Thank you Mariah's mom) in the shape of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After lunch, we finished up some other crafts, including making Eric Carle bookmarks, little hermit crabs from pasta shells, caterpillar necklaces, and click beetles that really click! Did your child come home and take a nap that day? It was a VERY BUSY day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Leprechauns on the Loose!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day today. Students set up the leprechaun traps that they made for homework. While we were out for lunch, the leprechaun or leprechauns made a HUGE mess in our class. They tripped our traps and left some gold candy and coins behind, but no luck in catching a real leprechaun! A secret message was left behind.
The students were so surprised and shocked! (Only 1 or 2 who were truly terrified, and we calmed them down!)
Making news!!

The Very Busy Authors!

As we have been studying Eric Carle, students have learned many new writing techniques to add to their writing strategies. For example, the have learned to "hook" the reader with a lead sentence such as, "Have you ever read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle?" They have included their favorite part, connections, and began working on detailed retellings. In the midst of all of this work, we can't help but have a little...well a lot of fun too! After reading The Very Busy Spider and retelling it with prop pieces, we decided to make our very own spider web. As we spun the web, we retold the story page by page. Then after the web was made, we took turns being the fly caught in the web!