Channel 2 News!

Good Morning!
Yesterday I invited Steve Beylon, a Meteorologist, from Channel 2 News in Green Bay to visit our school!  He not only discussed what it is like to be a Meteorologist, but also discussed his childhood, dreams, goals, and family life.  He shared personal stories which are students could connect to!  Storms, wind patterns, fronts, precipitation, and Storm Chasers were all hot topics of the morning!  HE WAS THE TALK OF THEY DAY and I think he persuaded our Pre-K through 5th Graders to watch Channel 2 News and the weather!  THANKS, Mr. Beylon!

He is in the far northwest corner!

Demonstrating his wake-up in the morning activities!

Sunshine smiles,

We Have Painted Lady Butterflies!

"Ms. Wenzel, look there is a butterfly,"  exclaimed one of my students!  Totally not predicted for today, but happened!  Day   and we had 1 miracle right in our classroom...many wished they could have been in the classroom to witness the release of the butterfly out of its chrysalis.  LIFE IS AMAZING!

Butterfly smiles,

Day 16...we Have 5 Chrysalises!

Was your Saturday as beautiful as mine?  We topped 70 degrees in Northeast Wisconsin!  You're right it is Sunday, but I am still in awe of yesterday's weather!  I went on three different trails and pounded, pounded, and pounded!

We are anticipating Painted Lady Butterflies soon!  Just 16 days ago they were crawling around in the container and leaving silk strands now they are chrysalises.  Oh, we wonder, what day will they emerge?  Any predictions?

SMILES my friends,

Shapes and Figures in our Community!

SUN!!!  Oops..can't forget that tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 60's. HEAT WAVE here in Wisconsin!

Yesterday we went on a walking field trip to our village's library!  On our walk we brought our camera and decided to be Figure/Shape Hunters!  Each student had to take a picture of a shape/figure he or she spied!  Cones, cylinders, triangles, rectangles, pyramids, and circles galore!  When we arrived back we had 84 pictures!  All in a half mile walk!

Next step, pass the pictures around and students will need to correctly identify the shapes/figure that the child was trying to capture or Guess My Shape!

Circle Smiles,

Fractions/Shares Using a Paper Plate!

HELLO!  It's Tuesday, just in case you were wondering and all of your days are blending together like mine!

Today we used a paper plate to show shares-fractions!  We started with a blank paper plate and then cut it into half with a yellow crayon.  We labeled the parts 1. Next we got an orange crayon and cut it into fourths and labeled the parts 1 and noticed we had 4 parts-fourths.  Then we got a green crayon and cut our circle into eights.  HMMM...we got 8 parts-eights.  Finally, we got a blue crayon and cut it into sixteen parts-WOW.  We then folded the plate until we got down to that small silver of the circle 1/16.  We discussed how it would be appetite pleasing to cut it into 1/2's vs. 1/6's if we were hungry and were craving this "cookie" or "pizza."  We would definitely want the whole thing, but sharing it with another person would allow us to have a greater portion than 15 friends.

Smiles,

Adjectives and a Caterpillar-What's the Connection?

HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Today our school spent most of the day with our lights off to honor Earth Day!  Just like in the Colonial Times (we remembered that from our Colonial research).  Till the P.M. part of the day, we were very tempted to turn on the lights, but we RESISTED!  LOVE THE EARTH...Earth hugs!

Today we also used a caterpillar template to write and create an adjective caterpillar!  We used this template link as our rough draft and wrote down words to describe ourselves.  After conferencing, we traced the circles on construction paper and then rewrote the adjectives.  Next, we assembled our creepy crawlers!  Finally, we [resented our buggy friends!

Smiles,

Our Trucker Buddy Came!!

Saturday, Saturday, and SUN!!!

Hope you are able to say the same!

Yesterday our Trucker Buddy visited!  WE WERE ECSTATIC AS THE GUY WE WERE WRITING TO AND EMAILING "CAME TO LIFE" AND WALKED INTO OUR CLASSROOM!  Donita, his wife also came!!  What a HOOT it was to have them both of them here!  They shared trucking stories, laughed, and reminisced about past experiences!  K-5th graders were able to listen to these delightful tales and then he gave us a "tour" of his truck!  We even got to go inside the cab!  May I also mention, TOOT the horn-not once, twice, but many students pulled the cord!  I think the whole village heard us!

Again, what a delight and an experience of a lifetime!
Smiles,