Animals, Plants & Earth Day

Spring is always a fun month in terms of curriculum because we get to focus on plants and animals.  It's the time of year when eggs are hatching and flowers are blooming.  We take full advantage of all that is going on around us and try to experience it while it's happening.

Thanks to the generous contribution from Ayla's mom, we currently have a cup full of caterpillars that we are watching very intently.  We have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly for the past week and we are now about to witness the metamorphosis stages first hand!

Once each caterpillar forms its chrysalis, we will transfer them into the butterfly pavilion where they will emerge as butterflies.  We will eventually release them outside to fly free.

Today will celebrated Earth Day!  We learned the importance of taking care of our Earth and what we can do to help.  The flip books we created taught us the three R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

To do our part in keeping the air clean and producing more oxygen, we planted our own seedlings that we will eventually plant in the ground to grow oak trees.  The kids are very excited about the thought of growing their own tree!

Earth Day is the kick off to our two week unit on plants.  The kids will be learning about the life cycle of the plant as well as the parts of a plant.  We will be growing our own plants from a germinated seed and examining all the parts of the seed and plant.  We will be making observations and collecting data through out the weeks as well.

To add a celebratory touch to Earth Day we did the usual...

CUPCAKES!

Black History Month

We began our black history unit a few weeks ago which I noted here in a past posting.  We began with Martin Luther King, Jr., followed by George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks and then Harriet Tubman.

We wrapped up our unit this week focusing on our president, Barack Obama.  We learned all about his life in Indonesia and then Hawaii.  The kids were excited learning that he had two daughters not much older than them and one of the boys in the class was in awe when he realized that the First Lady's name rhymed with his mom's name! :)

I had been looking for the perfect opportunity to attempt a watercolor painting and I thought a portrait of Obama might be it.  I'm trying not to break my arm from patting my back so hard (ha!) - because I can't even tell you how thrilled I am about these watercolor results!  Check it out...

I think the kids felt like true artists when we were done with the paintings.  I see many more watercolors in our future.

To bring our black history unit full circle, we discussed what all the black Americans had in common.  Some said they all helped us - yes.  Others said they were all smart - yes.  But the message I wanted them all to leave with is that all of these black Americans wanted some form of peace - a better place for everyone to live united as one.  They each made an impact in their own way to bring all Americans together.

The kids thought about what they could do to bring peace to our country or to our world.  We made Peace Kids that displayed our messages so that our commitments to peace could be seen by all.

Our final display for Black History Month currently hangs in our hallway - just in time for Dr. Seuss Week, St. Patrick's Day and the beginning of Spring.  What goes up, must come down, I guess...I dream of cork covered walls to hang everything up all year long!

Playing Catch Up

Between the Common Core Teaching Conference and a sick baby girl, I haven't had a chance to even breathe this week - so I'm finally getting around to updating you on what we've been doing in the classroom.

By now you probably know that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow!  I don't know about you, but I am thrilled to think that spring will be coming sooner.  With Groundhog Day falling on a Saturday this year, it was a great opportunity to make class predictions before the weekend.

As you can see from our chart, the majority of our class predicated that Phil WOULD see his shadow.  Based on the data we collected, we graphed, tallied and answered questions.

We also made hats to proudly announce our predictions to our friends...

For several weeks we've been working on shapes, both 2D and 3D - understanding their attributes and learning their names.  As a means of exploration, we used toothpicks and marshmallows to create various structures using what we've learned.  The kids quickly figured out how many sides (toothpicks) and corners (marshmallows) they would need to make certain shapes, such a cube or a flat structure, such as a house.

I think the most challenging aspect of this activity was keeping the kids from eating all of the marshmallows!!

February is an extremely busy month in terms of holidays, celebrations and themes.  We've begun the month celebrating Black History because February has been designated as Black History Month.

Our focus was on Rosa Parks and George Washington Carver this past week.  We learned about who each of these black Americans was and what significant role they played in history.

We read a favorite book of mine called Back of the Bus. 

The authors, Aaron Reynolds and Coretta Scott King and illustrator Floyd Cooper, recount Rosa Parks' act of defiance through the eyes of a child.  The book kept the children engaged and had them asking many thoughtful questions.

We did a craft to go along with our reading about Rosa Parks.

 

Some students thought to put one black person, representing Rosa Parks, at the front of the bus, while the others put all of the white people at the front and all of he black people at the back.  It was interesting to me what their thought process was when placing the people on the bus.

For George Washington Carver we created a KWL chart to document what we "K"now, what we "W"ant to learn and what we "L"earned by the end of our lesson.

We decided to share more of what we learned through our "Peanut Man" writings.  It is funny to me how curious the kids are about what people look like.  As you can see, "looks" is one the things in our "want to know" category.  One student wrote "I learned that George Washington Carver had black hair."

Tomorrow we will learn about Harriet Tubman and her significant role with the Underground Railroad and her fight for women's suffrage.

Until then...

Have a wonderful week!

October Happenings

October came so quickly and we left rather quickly due to fall break - but in one week we accomplished a lot.

In October we celebrate Fire Prevention Week, which took place October 7th - 13th.  Due to our school schedule, we celebrated a week early to make sure our students received the important information they need to be fire ready and safe at home.

The Horry County Fire Department came out to speak with each of our classes about what to do if a fire broke out in their own home.  They also provided them with information to take home to their parents to insure their homes were as safe as possible - Parents:  Please look over the checklist to make sure your home is fire safe by clicking here.

October also began our "My Place on Earth" Unit in Social Studies.  The purpose of the unit is --> to talk about places and how to locate them.  The students will compare models and maps and learn about different kinds of land and water.  In addition, students will learn how to use map keys and map symbols.  They will also be able to distinguish between land and water on maps and globes.

To introduce the unit, we talked about where we were.  In the classroom?  At school?  In Conway?  In South Carolina?  In the United States?  On Earth?  They learned that all of these answers were correct.  To provide a visual representation, we made mobiles to hang in our classroom to remind ourselves exactly where we were...

And to keep with our fall theme, we used our color words and sight words and wrote about the new season.  I'm hoping all the kids will have the opportunity to observe the change in season over their break.

I hope you are all enjoying your fall break so far - see you soon!