Teaching Kiddos

A  Circle Map  is one of the first Thinking Maps we learn. It is probably one of the easiest for young children to grasp and comprehend because basically they are taking a single (one) idea and defining it in its context. Circle Map=a thinking map used to define information Today we did a " close read" with Nights of the Pufflings. By the second read we became experts on Pufflings by using circle maps. The main idea ( Pufflings ) was written in the center circle. We then proceeded to write 5-7 details about this animal that really stood out as we read/listened to the story. After using the Thinking Map tool ( circle map) we now have a better understanding of the book and its main character , the Puffling!

Last week we used toilet paper to learn about science! How fun is that? To better understand how far from the sun each planet is we made a model. Sadly Mrs. Ramsey nor Mrs. Ballesteros are not Ms. Frizzle and can't turn our school bus in to a rocket ship and take you to the moon, therefore we have to make a model. The solar system is way to big to "see" so we have to model it! Toilet paper came in handy today for our solar system model! The students were provided with a chart telling them how many sheets of toilet paper each planet is away from the sun. Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, was 3 sheets of toilet paper from the sun. Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, was 224 sheets of toilet paper from the sun. The kids did quite a bit of counting today! I was very proud of the teamwork efforts. The students seem to take every assignment seriously in Science! Even if it does involve toilet paper!

Using these grafitti walls for review before a test is one of our favorite review activities because it's so quick and easy to do ... and our students LOVE it.  It only requires a few pieces of chart paper and markers, and we accomplished everything you see in the picture in  less than 15 minutes!!!  Truly. First we take a piece of butcher paper and add a specific question related to the unit we are learning in class. Each partner gets a colored pen. All groups have different colors. This allows us as teachers to see which students understand or don't understand a concept without having the class see their names . We love this because the students aren't afraid to answer and have other students see they made a mistake We love seeing them work the problems out together!

HOUR OF CODE Computer Science Education Week a.k.a. the Hour of Code kicked off today!    Last year 15 million students participated in the Hour of Code, and this year the goal is to get 100 million students worldwide to do an Hour of Code by the end of 2015!    Here’s a little intro video from  Code.org  if you’re unfamiliar with what The Hour of Code is all about.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5FbmsH4fw&sns=em We fully support their philosophy that every 21 st -century student should have the opportunity to learn computer science.  If you’ve never tried coding before,  Code.org is a great place to start.  It offers a variety of self-guided tutorials from kindergarten up featuring Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and even Frozen!  Here are a couple of our cuties working on a coding program. Happy coding!!!!

This week our kiddos went into Olive's STEM classroom to use not only their fabulous brains but also their social skills to work together.  Each group was given the following materials: - foil -tape - straws - string - sticks -plastic glove The task was to build a "Mayflower" boat.  The boat needed to float and hold as many weights as possible. We were so proud of how awesome the kiddos were while working together .  Lots of communication! We were very impressed by the mature academic communication that occurred . And then came the floating competition: Lots of winners. Even if a boat sunk the group got a chance to discuss what went wrong and what solution would of fixed the problem.  We all enjoyed our 21st century STEM lesson. Because of the student's exceptional attitudes, we will be able to visit Olive's STEM room several more times during the year...... Can't wait!

We had some really creative puppets " walk" into our classroom last week.  For their book report assignment , the kiddos had to find a scary book, mystery book, or Halloween themed  book. After the book was chosen, the kiddos had to identify the main character . For the book report a character sketch needed to be filled out, a summary needed to be written neatly or typed and most importantly a puppet needed to be made of the main character.  Character sketch  Book summary Puppet

For our phonics lesson about the silent e, we became   " ninjas". We loved doing this lesson because we not only got to sing a Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtle's song ( go ninja, go ninja, go) but we got to learn how powerful that silent E can be at the end of a word . To demonstrate this we became ninjas and placed an E at the end of several short vowel words.  After the whole class lesson, the students then took their masks and went through their daily 5 books from their book baskets. In their own leveled books they could search for words that had the Super Sneaky Silent E. In our opinion , any lesson with " costumes" is a fun and productive one!!!!!