My Christmas Gift to Fellow Teachers!

WOW!!!  It's a beautiful white morning here in Pulaski, WI!  We got around 4 inches of here to stay snow!  Definitely a morning to exercise patience and hold on tight driving skills!

I finished my gift for my fellow teachers!  I decided to make them a GET OUT OF FREE RECESS DUTY card!  Here it is:  Click here

Who wouldn't want an extra 15 minutes right?????   We all have recess duty one time a week, so I figured an extra 15 minutes was as good as a fresh cup of steaming Java on a Monday morning!

I did have to add a clause!  They have to redeem in the spring time-I have been "blessed" with Raynauds in my hands and feet.  If you have never heard of Raynauds, lets just say you quickly lose the feelings in your extremities and they turn a ghostly white quickly.  As the circulation returns your hands then go through great pain as the bloods flows to "revive" your extremities!

Ok, enough about my digits and toes, have a wonderful Monday!

The view outside our west windows!

Smiles!                                      

First Field Trip-Check!

HELLO!!!  So this morning I completed Mid-quarter grade reports..yes, I said Mid-quarter.  We are 1/2 way through 2nd quarter.  YIKES!  or EEKS!  We are also getting ready for our first possible snow storm of the season-Snowstorm Andy!  We have a possibility to get 5-6 inches of powdery white flakes!  Do you have snow?

Yesterday we went on our first field trip of the year!  We visited   Earthaven Museum  Must I say, it is rockin!!!! (pun intended)  Gold, silver, diamonds, and mammoth tusks galore!  It's a rock and gem paradise!
My students and I were mesmerized with their extensive collection of our beautiful Earth's resources and our eyes were wide open for 2 hours!  Our eyes had the accompaniment of our ears which were tuned in to hear another story by the two field trip guides and collector.  They have been to many digging hot spots to search for the biggest and most wanted gems, rocks, minerals, and fossils!

Here are a few photos to give you a snapshot of our trip:

 tools

clear Quartz

pressed Gold and Silver

ahh the collections

tell me more

I'll take that one!

Animals, Animals, and more Animals!

Happy Friday!  Hooray for Fridays...and afternoon field trips to a rock museum...more about that in a future post!

It's all about animals in our classroom!  Mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, and amphibians, OH MY!!
We have spent the past month discussing animal categories, characteristics, traits, and adaptations!  Did you know a platypus is a mammal and lays eggs and guppies are fish that does not lay eggs?  These are just two of the facts we have discovered on our animal learning adventures!

Here are a few pictures to illustrate and capture a few of our learning experiences

Beanie Babies to help us categorize animals into categories-thank you Mom for buying these for me many years ago!

Hmm...where does my octopus go?  Which category does it fit into?



Deep thinking about about which animal to pick and sort!  Can you tell how we are categorized  these animals?



Deciding if  our animals have similiar traits and characteristics!



Deciding if  our animals have similiar traits and characteristics!

Deciding if  our animals have similiar traits and characteristics!

Documenting in our science journals- what do we remember about mammals?

Here is a fantastic site we went on to build a fish!  click here
It is through the Shedd Aquarium in the windy city-Chicago!

Here are a few books we have read so far.  We also compared and contrast the books and wrote our opinions about the books!
            

Next, birds, amphibians, reptiles and food chains!  Yes, we will be doing owl pellets-straight from owls at a wildlife sanctuary! 
**BONUS- here's a website we will be visiting before our dissection:  virtual owl pellets to dissect

Smiles,

Is St.Nick Coming Tonight for Your Students?

Happy Wacky Wednesday, or should I say WILD Wednesday!!  WOW, were we busy in our classroom-it felt like an A-Z of topics to learn about today.  Animal research, continents and oceans, Adventures to Fitness, math facts, and Me on the Map + more!  BUT, we always shine and smile at 2:45 because we realized it was a busy learning day in our classroom!

Tonight St. Nicholas is visiting my classroom!  My Mult-agers are getting a candy cane!  Attached to the candy cane is the Legend of the Candy Cane message!  I will be reading this book next week and we will be doing some related activities and I will share them with you then!

Here is the link to the Legend of the Candy Cane:  click here

Smiles and more smiles,



Explain Your Number-A Number Sense Activity

Happy Tuesday...hooray the wind has calmed down from last night and the sun it out...VITAMIN D!!!!!!

Today we did our second Explain Your Number activity.  I found this sheet on________ (I am working on trying to find the Blog I found it on to give credit back to this wonderful teacher).

I adapted it to a number sense activity!  First, we choose a number and wrote it in the the center box!  My Youngers- 1st graders choose a one digit number (those who wanted a challenge choose a two digit number) and my Olders- 2nd graders choose a two digit number (those who wanted a challenge choose a three digit number). 
Next, they needed to show three addition number sentences and then three subtraction number sentences to get to the number that we choose.  Finally they conferenced with me and explained their choices. 
Here are some samples:


She choose 22 and 82!



She choose 99 and then I gave her a challenge- 123....so proud of her!

She choose 99 and had a challenge of 123! BRAVO!

I have marvaled at a few of their ways to demonstrate their number sense and their understanding of numbers!  REMARKABLE!!!

Smiles,

Me Poem

Hello!  Is it hold on to your locks windy by you?  The windows are rattling in my apartment!  Thank goodness for the blessings of shelter!!

Today in tech lab we typed Me Poems!  We are working hard to learn Word tools and applications- Word Art, changing font size and color, adding clip art, borders, backgrounds, and using home row to try to type the words!

A few of us finished one of our first projects, a ME Poem!  Here are three samples!

The instructions:

• Title
• First line:  name
• Second line:  1 word that either describes me or indicates a passion of mine
• Third line:  the above but with 2 words
• Fourth line:  the above but with 3 words
• Last line:  Last name

I am so proud of there work!  They have progressed beautifully!
Smiles and happy 1st week of Advent!

School Store

December is here whether we are ready or not!

Yesterday we had our monthly School Store!  This has been a tradition for the past two years!  I started a School Store back in 2010 with the visions that our school would be able to put our math, marketing, advertising and economic skills, values, and discipleship into play!  In its origins I had all the students fill out a School Store Interest Survey- basically to find out what they would buy or want to buy in a school store!  I analysed the data with our 5th grade students who were helping me run the Store at the time!  With the information I went out and hunted for great deals and hot items that would make a K-5th grade student say, "I WANT THAT" or
THAT IS SO COOL." 

After I bought the items, the 5th graders helped  me price and sell the items!  The Store would be open one time a month on Friday afternoons! They 5th graders made signs to advertise the School Store and we officially opened one month later!
Two years later, our School Store is a huge success and attracts buyers from each grade!  I also have started a prize drawing!  Shoppers can put their names in for a chance to win the prize!  After the Store closes, I randomly draw a name and we get a lucky winner!

My Multi-age students shop and decide what is the best buy for the allowance they got!

Other students join us to buy that just right item!

Smiles!