Crazy about Shapes, Eggs and Plants!

We are ending April with a bang! So many fun hands on activities from building new shapes with our pattern blocks, watching our ducks growing before our eyes and also finishing up our plants unit! We are in full swing until the end of the year!

Geometry Exploration

Working in our shapes study this week students got to build 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks as well as pattern blocks. Students got to experiment and find how many different ways they could put different combinations of shapes together to make hexagon's and then simply build fun pictures to discover how shapes fit together. It was a great week of exploration and using our math vocabulary to explain our learning! 

     

     

     

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a duck egg!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby ducks. While we wait, we are deep into study on a ducks life cycle, how they are growing inside the egg and how to prepare for them when they arrive. This week, as they had been incubating for their second week, the baby ducks were moving quite a bit inside the egg and students actually got to see a few moving when we candled them! It was so exciting and the kids were fascinated that there weren't full size baby ducks inside yet! We have 14 days left and we can hardly wait!

Parts of a Plant

Finishing off our plant study students got to create their own flower using papers that we painted by hand with Mr. V a few weeks back. We started by tearing paper to make the soil and stem of a plant. Then we finished with our sky, sun and petals of the flower, as well as adding our labels! They turned out so beautiful! I love them!

     

    

Well that's all for now, but stay tuned with our duck egg hatching coming soon as well as a fun walking field trip to the veterinary clinic in the next weeks there will be lots of fun things to share!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Leaves, Seeds and Plants Oh My!

We are off and running in our plants unit, getting our hands dirty and enjoying every minute! 

Here are a few of the activities that took place in our week:

Planting Pots

One of our activities to go through our understanding of plants was a writing craftivity as I call it. Below in the pictures see each page of our flip book, that when assembled all together created a potted plant. The "oohs" and "aahs" once we put them together were hilarious! Now these pots are decorating our classroom :)

Students working on their books.

A completed book.

Soil Sensory Table

During choice time students had the opportunity to practice planting seeds in our sensory table. Students got to look at varying seeds, bulbs and practice taking care of them. The students loved making their gardens, and then making new ones! It was a fun practice for when we start growing our bean seeds this week.

Daffodil Drawing

One area that we explored this week was how to draw "real-life" drawings of plants. It is a hard skill and one that definitely requires practice, but for our first time out I thought they turned out so well! Check out a few of them here:

Well that's all for now, but stay tuned next time to see the beans we planted, as well as some fun math we have been working on in class.

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Community Helpers

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fun spring break. I am so excited to get back into action, I missed your kiddos :)

This post is all about our wrap up of Community Helpers. From taking a field trip to the grocery store, post office and fire department, to making our mural of Estacada with Larry Verdoorn it was a fun filled week!

 

Walking Field Trip

To start off our walking field trip we began with Thriftway. We got to see in the back stock room, see all the varying departments of the store and the students even got to check out their own goodie bag of items! The students had so much fun and it was a great connection to think about all the community helpers who make a grocery store possible. For example the farmers, bakers, grocers etc.

Students get to see the back storage room in Thriftway.

Then we went off to see the Fire Department. The Fire Chief began by talking with the students about fire safety, the kids knew so much already! Then the kids got to see where the fire fighters sleep when they stay at the fire station. Then students got to see the fire truck and go inside, and see a firefighter put on all of his tools! The students loved getting to see him on with his mask! Finally we got a special visit from the fire dog! It was a great visit.

Students getting to see where Fire Fighters sleep.

Watching Fire Fighter Cody put on his suit.

A student takes photos on the iPad to document our trip.

A special guest visited us at the Fire Station!

To finish off our field trip we went to the Post Office. Inside we got to see the behind the scenes look at the post office boxes, how they sort mail and packages and finally we got to see the lift where mail workers bring in crates of packages off of mail trucks. The students were so excited to see all the packages and hear how much mail goes through everyday!

Getting to see the behind the scenes mail sorting.

The lift where mail carriers get packages off of trucks.

The field trip was such a great chance for our class to see community helpers in action and see the variation in helpers. From a Fire Fighter to a Post Office worker students truly got to see why every job is important to our community.

Estacada Mural

To finish off our study of the community we worked with artist in residence Larry Verdoorn to construct a map of Estacada. Students got the chance to help paint the background of the mural, construct the roads and they also got to make the buildings and trees with the papers we painted a few weeks ago. It was wonderful to hear the kids exclaim "Oh yeah we have to put in City Hall we saw that when we walked to the Fire Station," or "Don't forget the bank by the Post Office!" I loved hearing students make connections to the community based on what we saw on our walking tour. The students did a truly wonderful job and I can't wait to find the perfect place to hang it in our school for everyone to admire!

Larry Verdoorn shows students how to make their houses.

A student uses a picture on an iPad to design her building.

A student recreates a business by looking at a photo on the iPad.

A student working on constructing their house.

The finished mural!

It is hard to believe that we only have 9 weeks left in school! While there are so few weeks left they are truly jam packed with fun experiences and learning for your children. Keep checking back here for updates on the amazing adventures we are having :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams

The Leprechaun's Came!

What a whirlwind of a week filled with Leprechaun shenanigans! Therefore this post will be all about St. Patrick's Day!

Leprechaun Directed Drawing

I have been so impressed with how well our directed drawings have turned out! We have been doing at least one a month and it is so clear that each kids drawing skills have improved so much. We started by following step by step directions on how to draw our leprechaun. Then we used colored pencils to color in our leprechauns and finally we water colored the rainbow background. They make our room so cheerful and bright :)

Leprechaun Traps

What an absolutely amazing engineering challenge this was for kids! We started the whole project off by talking about the steps of the engineering process, designing a plan, gathering materials, creating your project and then refining your project, and then we set off to complete that process with our leprechaun traps. We started with the design, students got to draw out their plans for their trap and list the materials they would need.

Then students got to gather their materials that they had tracked in their supply list and start building. Here are some photos of the supplies as well as the constructed traps.

Finally we were ready to set up our traps to try and catch a leprechaun! Too bad those tricky buggers got away!

Here is the mess that they left!

Despite the fact that we didn't catch anything, we had so much fun making the traps and I loved seeing them working to fix and make their traps better. It was so wonderful :)

If you missed the video that we caught of leprechauns causing a ruckus in our room you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw0H_sLjEgk

One week until Spring Break!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Happy Hundredth Day!

I can't believe we have already hit our 100th day of school mark. It has flown by, but as the saying goes time flies when you're having fun :)

Hundredth Day Excitement

What a fun day of celebration we had. It started off with our door symbolizing that we were coming into the Hundredth day as new kids. A few kiddos called it a "portal" making us look like old people! We spent the day counting out multiple items, and 100 of them each time, plus making our 100th day crowns, 100th day necklaces and more. Here is a picture of our door decoration and of us teachers dressed in our 100th day gear!

Community Helpers

This week we looked at community helpers and the tools that they need to do each job. We learned about how they get around, and also where those community helpers are. This coming week we will be looking at how each job impacts our life and how the jobs in the community intertwine. Here is a photo of a few kiddos doing a community helper write the room.

Dance Party

This week 3 students combined all of their "Hi Five" reward tickets to buy our class a Dance Party! Students love saving their tickets and buying rewards with them but they also love getting together and deciding how to share their tickets to buy a prize for the whole class. Students were so excited to have a dance party! A few even made disco balls to hang up (look at the top of the picture hanging off of the projector!). We pushed the tables aside and took some time to dance and have fun!

We only have 2 weeks left until Spring Break and they are packed with huge art activities and a walking field trip! So keep checking in to follow along with all our fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Read Across America Week!

What an amazing Dr. Seuss filled week! So many fun activities packed into one week! Here is a small glimpse of all the Seusstastic things we did this week :)

Clifford Comes to Visit

While this wasn't Dr. Seuss related, our principal Mrs. Hudson dressed up in a Clifford costume and came to visit our classroom to celebrate and encourage reading! The kids were so excited to see Clifford and almost knocked her over there were so many kids hugging her! It was a great start to our week!

Goat in a Boat

As we collected reading tickets over the course of the week, a 4th grade class totaled the number of minutes read and it was so large that we were treated with Mrs. Hudson reading to a goat in a boat, a famous line from Green Eggs and Ham. The kids loved getting to sit and see Mrs. Hudson reading! Plus they got to pet the goat after which was a fun bonus!

Artist in Residence: Larry Verdoorn

Finally on Friday we finished off our week with painting and a color factory with the amazing Mr. V. We will be constructing a special mural in two weeks but in order to make this mural we needed to paint our papers to use for the mural. The students got the chance to learn about color mixing and making papers with different textures. The students loved it and are so excited for him to come back in two weeks!

I can't believe Spring Break is just around the corner and we have so many fun things leading up to Spring Break. So stay tuned for all the fun to come :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams