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

Science and Social Studies Week!

The title of this blog is Science and Social Studies week because it sure feels like that was our focus :) From finishing up our maps unit, using our knowledge of maps to make a classroom map and going on a field trip to OMSI it was an awesome and fun week!

Making Our Own Maps

This week our map unit concluded by students using their knowledge of maps to create their own personal map of our classroom! Students included labels, a compass to give directions and we used them to discuss where items in our classroom were located! It was a fun experience for them to look at the perception of our classroom from a birds eye view and it was a challenge for them to make a map that was accurate to the locations in our room! Here are a few of the products:

A student labels the library on her map.

A student finishes adding chairs to her map.

A student colors in our rug and the desks for our classroom.

OMSI Fun!

Our field trip to OMSI this week was amazing! I was so impressed with the students' behavior and their engagement in all of the activities OMSI has to offer! Students got the chance to fly paper airplanes in a venting system, they got to make boats and dams in the water exhibit, we looked at how to make mountains, valleys and oceans using sand and also how to reduce, reuse and recycle! It was a science filled day of fun! The students really enjoyed themselves and I enjoyed seeing them so engaged and being exposed to so many different science topics! Here are a few photos from our day!

A student using sand to explore the different elevations needed to make valleys and mountains.

Students building a retaining wall to protect houses from a tsunami!

A student builds a boat and explores how much weight is needed to keep the boat from tipping over.

Students work together to roll a marble through a maze.

It was a fun filled week and next week being Read Across America promises to be just as fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

All You Need is... Valentine's Day!

What a love filled week we had. From making a class book about what love means to each student, reading Valentine's books and even doing some Valentine's candy math we had a wonderful week celebrating the love in our classroom.

Love Is Class Book

This week we discussed what love actually was and the kids came up with some great ideas. Whether it was "taking care of someone else, or being kind to someone" the kids really thought long and hard about the things in their lives that they loved. We then wrote and drew pictures about what we loved to put together to make a love class book for students to read in our class library. Here are a few pages from the book: 

My family is love because they take care of me.

I love my teacher. I love the world. I love my pets. I love my friends.

I love food. I love recess. I love my pet.

Candy Math

Perhaps the most exciting part of our week was when I handed each student a box of candy hearts and had them graph their box based on color! Students graphed their own papers, which you will see examples of below, and then as a class we compared to see which color students got the most of! I was shocked there were about 6 kids who didn't have an entire color and others that had over half of their box be one color. It was a really fun way to compare data and see the differences within each box.

A student colors in her squares to match the number of hearts she had in her box.

We are full speed ahead to spring break. From our field trip to OMSI this week, Read Across America week the next and then our 100th day of school after that we are going to be jam packed with fun activities! I can't wait to document all the fun that your children, and I, are having :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Fly Guy, Maps and More!

Hello all! What a fun week we had last week starting off with our field trip to see Fly Guy the Musical, learning about Maps, compasses and legends and of course gearing up for Valentines Day we had quite the packed week!

Fly Guy the Musical

On Tuesday we ventured into Downtown Portland to have our minds blown by Fly Guy the Musical put on by Oregon Children's Theater. The kids were awestruck to say they least. They couldn't believe that the fly guy stories we had read in class were brought to life in the play. I heard many kids exclaim "how is this real?" When we got back to school we brainstormed our favorite parts of the show and students got to write about it! Their writing turned out so great so I wanted to share a few!

I like when Liz's mom met Fly Girl. It was funny!

Fly Guy and Fly Girl were chased by the robot.

I like when the Robot chases Fly Girl and Fly Guy.

I like when the crossing guard was making the kids dance.

Maps

This week we started looking at Maps! Students got exposed to a compass and using a compass to give me directions! We have also been using our compass to predict which direction our pattern will go in Calendar. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well the kids have picked up the vocabulary. I even heard a kid at recess say "Well the wind is blowing East today!" Then we started looking at legends and keys to figure out details about maps. This week students will get to make their own maps, with their own compass to show the direction of items and a legend to show which colored paper represents different landmarks. They are very excited to dive right in!

Our class compass.

Our compass at the top of our calendar.

LOVE Art Project

Over the past week students were able to make a very fun art project. Students got to look at texture of paper and how we can paint crumpled paper lightly to give a picture the appearance of texture. Then students put black letters on top of their painted papers to add contrast and finally put all the pieces together. They turned out so well and are hanging in the main entry for the whole school to see!

All you need is...

Gluing letters can be hard when you have to put the glue on the wrong side :)

What a busy week we had and I can't wait to continue our Map exploration, have a wonderful Valentine's day and continue our study of our community and kindness.

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Self Portraits!

In honor of conferences this week we focused a lot on self reflections and of course had to do our mid year self portraits. Students had the opportunity to reflect on which subjects they like best at school and how they feel they do at listening, following directions etc. It was quite interesting to see who I thought was being too hard on themselves as learners! I will of course share those documents with you at conferences this week!

Self Portraits 

To start our self portraits we talked about the fact that we are all learning how to be artists, which means that there will be no perfect way to draw yourself and that is ok. Some students said phrases like "I'm no good at art" and we talked about the fact that we will always be learning, growing and changing. Our class motto is "The more you practice the better you get!" First we started by drawing our head, eyes, mouth (that was the hard part!), ears etc. Then we colored our faces with color crayons and finally water colored the background. I have never seen the kids work so hard and their hardwork shows in the beauty of these self portraits. You can see them all displayed in our classroom when you come to conferences, but here are a few previews!

A student colors in her self portrait.

A student adds watercolor to his background.

 Here are a few of the finished ones! I love the details they added!

High Fives!

Along with our school's behavior tickets "Goldfish" our class has started using High Fives which are our class coupons that students get when I see them doing something exceptional, helping out a friend, cleaning up an area they weren't working at, doing a task without being reminded etc. Students have been collecting these High Fives and I finally opened our "Coupon Store" for students to buy reward coupons with their High Fives. Some of the coupons include No Shoes (getting to take your shoes off in the classroom for one day) Bring a Stuffed Animal to School (getting to bring their favorite stuffed toy to school for one day) and more! Students love looking at our chart to decide which coupon they are saving for and I have loved seeing students collaborating and sharing their tickets. I have heard "Hey if you save 5 and I save 5 we can buy something that is 10 tickets together!" When you get the chance ask your child what they are saving for or how many High Fives they have saved at school so far!

The green is the poster with the coupons displayed and the box below is where students can buy the physical coupons.

Well that is all for this week. I can't wait to see you all at conferences and to continue all of the fun I have with your children every day!

Smiles,

Miss Adams