Have I ever mentioned how proud I am of these kiddos? No? Well, I am over the top proud of how much they have changed and grown as individuals and strong children. I'm not talking about academics (reading, writing, etc). Nope ... I'm talking about their character, their growing ability to be independent, seeing how they are making changes and choices for the better. I could go on and on and on...and I just might if I had more than 10 minutes left of lunch time.
But instead, I'll leave you with the video of our talent show performance. We've really been looking at what it takes to be a leader; to have characteristics that will last even once we're out of school. We have been practicing the 7 Habits song and have even decided to make it our class song. When the time came for the school talent show we proudly signed up. Today was the performance and I couldn't be more proud. Give your kiddo a big hug and tell them you saw the video...and tell them what a wonderful job they did.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
End of the Year!
So many fun and exciting things are happening in our classroom these last 2 weeks! Here's what we did last week!
We had a paper airplane competition. Mrs Flatness ended up being an expert at making paper airplanes and gave us a tutorial. We learned ways to make them more aerodynamic. We also learned that it's a skill we can continue to work on at home with scrap paper.
On another day we learned how to fold paper to make a paper boat. None of us were able to follow the exact directions and get it to look like the video's example. But we learned that we all have different ways of learning: some learned by watching the video, others did better hearing me give the directions, and some did better just by getting their hands on the paper and figuring it out.
After we did the paper boats, we got to create a boat from aluminum foil, in any fashion we could figure out. The purpose was to have it hold a LOT of pennies. Some boats held 20, others held 3 but the champion's boat held 89 pennies before taking on water! It was interesting to see the different designs: flat bottom, deep cup style, canoe (which did NOT work well), and then those that looked like a shallow dish.
Friday we learned about design and construction and physics when we played with mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. We started off hoping to build a tall tower and quickly realized that we needed to focus on team work and design because the towers just wouldn't stay up. They eventually figured out how to balance the materials to make interesting designs...so that's what we did.
And lastly, we got to eat s'mores and discuss what we would do if we had s'more time in our classroom. The responses were cute: spend more time with my friends, learn more math, write letters, celebrate. I forgot to take pics of their responses so I'll edit this post later with those pics.
It's hard to believe it's the end of the year....6.5 school days left! Eeeek! This upcoming week has something exciting each day (toy day, board games, book swap, PJ/Stuffed animals, field day, etc). It's quickly coming to an end!
We had a paper airplane competition. Mrs Flatness ended up being an expert at making paper airplanes and gave us a tutorial. We learned ways to make them more aerodynamic. We also learned that it's a skill we can continue to work on at home with scrap paper.
On another day we learned how to fold paper to make a paper boat. None of us were able to follow the exact directions and get it to look like the video's example. But we learned that we all have different ways of learning: some learned by watching the video, others did better hearing me give the directions, and some did better just by getting their hands on the paper and figuring it out.
After we did the paper boats, we got to create a boat from aluminum foil, in any fashion we could figure out. The purpose was to have it hold a LOT of pennies. Some boats held 20, others held 3 but the champion's boat held 89 pennies before taking on water! It was interesting to see the different designs: flat bottom, deep cup style, canoe (which did NOT work well), and then those that looked like a shallow dish.
On Thursday we got to celebrate our participation with Fazoli's! All year long we have been reading at home, earning certificates to Fazolis and trying to have the most hours read in the district. We never did win for the "most hours per kid" but we did earn the participation party! We celebrated with pizza and pasta from Fazoli's. It was delicious!
Friday we learned about design and construction and physics when we played with mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. We started off hoping to build a tall tower and quickly realized that we needed to focus on team work and design because the towers just wouldn't stay up. They eventually figured out how to balance the materials to make interesting designs...so that's what we did.
And lastly, we got to eat s'mores and discuss what we would do if we had s'more time in our classroom. The responses were cute: spend more time with my friends, learn more math, write letters, celebrate. I forgot to take pics of their responses so I'll edit this post later with those pics.
It's hard to believe it's the end of the year....6.5 school days left! Eeeek! This upcoming week has something exciting each day (toy day, board games, book swap, PJ/Stuffed animals, field day, etc). It's quickly coming to an end!
Saturday, May 17, 2014
The Zoo Came to Us Again!
The Dickerson Park Zoo visited us TWICE this month...first to teach us about animals with fur, feathers and scales and then again to show us animals of Missouri!
Monday, May 5, 2014
April Attendance & Silly String
I am sooooo proud of our class! April's attendance has ROCKED! We really focused on individual attendance this past month and WOW it has made a difference! I hope your kiddo has mentioned to you the importance in being at school as well as stressed to you their need to be there. We've had incentives for individual attendance successes as well as class successes. Rewards included chance to chew gum when you've made it 5 straight days, lunch in the classroom at 10 consecutive days, extra recess, sitting where you want....all the way up to the GRAND REWARD of GETTING TO SILLY STRING ME if you are at school every day in April!
Well April is officially over and out of our 19 kiddos, there were 11 that were here every.single.day!! That's something to celebrate! I'm not sure what I was thinking when I offered to get silly stringed but I said it, so that's what we did!
I know the kids loved it; and I loved hearing their excitement each day as they kept track of their attendance and knew exactly how many days in a row they'd been to school. They also frequently referred back to their individual attendance goals as they checked to see how they were moving along.
A big thank you to the parents that helped make April's attendance a huge success. In May there are only 19 days but I'm sure our class will come up with some great new incentives for attendance. I can only imagine what crazy things I'll have to do on that last day for them!
A big thank you to the parents that helped make April's attendance a huge success. In May there are only 19 days but I'm sure our class will come up with some great new incentives for attendance. I can only imagine what crazy things I'll have to do on that last day for them!
Friday, May 2, 2014
Physics with MSU
This year we had another unique opportunity! We worked with MSU's physics department to learn more about Force & Motion and later in May we'll explore Sound! The students were able to work in 4 different stations in the gym, conducting different experiments under the guidance of a MSU physics student. We learned about pulleys, magnets, friction, and inertia! Check out some of our pictures from Force & Motion lab and look for a later post for an update on our Sound lab!
MSU Science Lab
One of the great things about being a Fremont Falcon is that we get to work with some wonderful students from Missouri State University. Each semester, MSU students that are preparing to be elementary teachers get the opportunity to teach a science lesson to the classroom. Earlier in April our classroom learned about sound and how sound is a vibration. They worked in stations, observing different ways to make sound.
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