Snakehead Ed

We had a wonderful morning learning about snakes! I was a little squeamish..but the kids LOVED it! They got to see a few different kinds and could even touch one! It was a great learning experience for all! 

6 simple things...

Last year, I would update each Friday with 6 simple things that would make me smile.  I'm sorry to admit it, but I have not been so diligent with that this year.  However, I want to make it a goal to start reflecting more often, as this year is quickly coming to an end. 

These kiddos hold a special place in my heart and find ways to make me smile every day! So I'd love to share a few ways they did this week....

1. Working with a great (and efficient!) team
2. Students creating leprechauns with their Irish names (example: O'Gilbert)
3. Our IB/Science experiments and students loving to use their Science Notebooks
4. Getting sweet notes from the kiddos on the back of their DMR quizzes
5. Having my students ask me if I could be their teacher again next year.
6. Gummy worms getting passed out for students who were doing their jobs during Writer's Workshop.

What made you smile this week?

Small group reading

Each day I have the opportunity to meet with small groups and work on their reading skills.  Recently, we have been working on reading carefully.  Sometimes, students mixed up easy words because we are not reading carefully.  To help the students to remember to read carefully, they get to wear special reading glasses.  The student enjoy wearing the glasses and it definitely helps their reading!

IB: The Earth Beneath our Feet

We recently started our next IB unit.  Students will be discovering things about the "Earth beneath their feet."  We have already learned about different kinds of soil and their properties.  I can't wait to see how the students enjoy the next few days in IB! Here are a few pictures from our time studying soil.

Author's Celebration

Students participate in Writer's Workshop everyday during their writing time.  They write stories about things that really happened to themselves.  About every other week, students get a chance to share their stories with each other.  It is a special time and students love the interaction.  Here are a few pictures from our last Author's Celebration.

We Are Scientists!

This week we learned we are all scientists. We learned that scientists can study liquids, the Earth, lava from volcanoes, dinosaurs, and the whole world.

Amazing Animals

Jamiya: It can get -100 degrees in a polar habitat.

Aundrea: There are deserts and there are plants that live there like cactus. Cacti don't need water for a long time.

Eduardo:

Sarahi: The forests has a lot of animals in it like frogs.

Katharine: The ocean gets darker and darker and some animals make their own lights to see.

Aidan: The owls can digs holes and they can stay there for over a day. They leave their holes at night to get their food and to cool off.

Erica: Frogs live in the rainforest.

Mya: I learned

Carlos: I learned in the mountains you have to be an animal to survive because it is not good if you look down you will fall.

Lewis: There are owls in the desert.

Kailey: Bears can’t cross the road if cars are coming because they might get hurt.

Puppet Workshop

This week students had the opportunity to create their own puppets. Students used household items to bring their puppets to life. It was such a fun experience. Student can create their own puppet shows, write about their puppets, and play with them. Check out some pictures from this great day!

Fox Hill in the news!

Be sure to check out this great segment about Fox Hill and the Playworks program! It's called "Why recess and physical education are making a comeback.



http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

Lunch bunch!

On Wednesdays, students who had awesome behavior from the previous week (3 reds or oranges) are able to eat lunch with me! Students love this special time and I love being able to enjoy lunh with them! 

What do you do at home to celebrate great behavior? 

Learning about the Moon

I'm SO sorry for not being better about getting posts up.  My new goal is to have a post up at least once a week.  Stay tuned to see the progress! :) 

Last week in Journey's students read a story called "Let's Go to the Moon."  It was an informational text describing what happens on a trip to the moon.  I was floored with how into the students got.  A reading lesson turned into a writing lesson.  Our writing lesson last week was to focus on questioning.  How perfect was that!  Students used question words (who, what, when, where, why, how) to ask amazing questions about the moon at the beginning of the week.  Some where: How can the moon be different shapes?  Why can we only see the moon during the night?  What is the moon made out of?  Why does the moon have holes on it? After questioning, we read a variety of Moon Books and discussed the text afterwards.  We then would add to our list of Moon Facts that we learned. Keep scrolling for a list of our facts! Also be sure to check out our bulletin board outside our classroom- we now have 24 astronauts in our room!

Asia: The moon makes the waves.

Aidan: There is no sound on the moon. The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere.

Carlos: Asteroids crashed into the moon and made holes. 

Katharine: The moon gets really hot in the day and gets really cold at nighttime. 

Eduardo: On the moon there is no water, plants, or animals.  The astronauts go to the moon and bring back rocks and dust.

Noah: The moon has no air or animals.

Maximo: An astronaut needs a helmet and a suit to help them breathe. 

Sarahi: Astronauts take pictures on the moon.

Tajuan: There is no gravity in space.

Lewis: There is less gravity on the Moon than Earth.

David: Astronauts take rocks from the moon to show people.

Donte: Astronauts drive a Lunar Rover on the moon.

Jose: We take lighter steps on the Moon because there is less gravity there.

Mya: There is dust on the surface of the moon.  The moon is smaller than the sun and earth.

Aundrea: The moon is not made out of cheese.  It is made out of hard rocks and dust and craters.

Caleb: The moon doesn’t have as much gravity so things float and you can take big steps.

Erica: The moon gets little and then it gets big again. This is called the moon’s phases. 

Jamiya: Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.

Boiler Up!