BUSY BUSY.

I have been crazy busy packing and unpacking the past two weeks because I am moving classrooms. I am so excited because I will have carpet (no more noisy chairs!) and I will have a window!! And I will no longer have to deal with a room that leaks everytime it rains :) Amy and I will be closet mates and we are so excited! The only downside to this move is that we will not be with the other five ladies on our team.

We are having to move our stuff into one classroom for the time being while we wait for my new classroom to be totally vacant. This is what Amy's room looked like with both of our stuff on Saturday....

WHAT. A. MESS.

I got really overwhelmed, but we made a LOT of progress Sunday (even if I did get a little ADD)! I took today off to lay poolside. Tomorrow after our professional day I hope we can get even more done :)

In other news, Friday was our last day of school with kids. I am going to miss them, but now my classroom will be in the 3rd grade hall so I will get to see my kiddos pretty often! HELLO SUMMER :)

Ocean Dioramas!

We have been learning about different animal habitats the last week or so. I had my students make a flip book for the land habitats we studied (forgot to photograph!). The front had a detailed illustration of the habitat. When you opened it, the top had a detailed description of the habitat, and the bottom included at least two animals found there. They turned out cute.

Now, I am not going to lie. I have almost zero motivation with it being the last week of school. I am also trying to get my room all packed up because I am moving out of the basement and into a room with windows next year (outa the "dungeon!"). But at the very last minute (like, as in, last night), something in me decided that we should do an ocean diorama with homemade play dough! We read and discussed fresh and salt water habitats, compared and contrasted, etc. Then we made our ocean dioramas. I will say it took a lot of time and A. LOT. OF. PATIENCE. But my kiddos really enjoyed it and were so proud and excited of their work.

Here are a couple of their creations. They made sponges, an octopus, a sting ray, an eel, and a starfish with the play dough. Some of their animals turned out rather large :)  I do know that when I do this again, I do not need to make or give them as much play dough as I did. Learning experience for me!

They molded the play dough into animals and put them on a sheet of cardstock first. We let them dry about 30 minutes or so, but they were not hardened yet. They painted with water colors on the soft-ish dough and it worked out just fine! **The play dough will harden over night** It was a fun project for the kids... made for a tired teacher though! :)

RECIPE:

I made 2 1/2 batches of  the following recipe for 23 kids. I think 1 1/2 or 2 batches would be PLENTY.

         -2 c. flour
         -1 c. salt
         -4 tsp. cream of tartar (VERY important ingredient!)
         -2 tbs. oil
         -2 c. water

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Put on stove at med. heat and stir. Play dough will begin to harden and stick to spoon. When dough is in a ball aroud spoon, remove from heat and let cool. Knead when cool enough to handle. Place in ziploc bag when cool. Do not use food coloring in dough.

Eric Carle & Butterflies!

First, I have to say that Teacher Appreciation Week has been fabulous! Our wonderful PTA has provided snacks, Sonic drinks, lunch, breakfast and other goodies for us! And my kiddos have showered me with sweeeeet cards, flowers, gifts and TWIX :) 

Okay, onto my unit :) Two weeks ago we did a unit on Eric Carle. He is one of my favorite authors!! I love the lessons and morals that he teaches, and I just looooove his artwork! :) We were able to integrate so many subject areas during this unit. Love it!

For reading, we read several of Eric's books and discussed the moral of each story. We recorded them in our "poof" books.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar a few times for fluency. I split the kids into three groups and they practiced and presented a reader's theater. So cute! The kids also sequenced the story on these cute caterpillars that I created.

In math we worked on story problems with the foods the caterpillar ate (forgot to photograph!!!) We also made Mrs. Carroll's Fractionpillars! They are so stinkin' cute!

In science we learned a lot about butterflies (and many other insects). We read a lot of nonfiction books about them. We created this cute life cycle illustration using pasta!

(I have NO idea why this is loading sideways! I have tried to fix it like 8 times and it won't! Sorry!)

For one of our writing projects, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon. I love the moral--just be yourself!!! I had the students write their own mixed up stories and illustrate their new, mixed up selves! They were adorable!!

**I did not include the illustrations because I used the students' photographs for part of their illustrations. If you do this activity, take a photo of each student, and then they can add animal characteristics to themselves! My students LOVED this activity!**

Eric Carle week is one of my faves, and I think my students really enjoyed it as well!!

I hope everyone survives their last few days of school! I am counting down!!! TEN DAYS :)

State Reports

I feel like I have been playing catch up ALL. WEEK. I was out four days last week, and when I went back Friday I decided that I still wanted my kiddos to do their state research projects and they were SO into it! They did a fabulous job!!

Before I got sick, we were doing a lot of research on Oklahoma. I checked out this series of state books:

I had a basket with all of the books and each child had to choose one without looking. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit :)

I required each child to find the following facts/symbols: a picture of the state with the state capitol, state flag, state animal, state bird, state tree, and state flower. We reviewed how to use the glossary to find the information. They did AWESOME!

I modified The Bag Ladies cuuuuute camera report for the kids to write and illustrate each symbol. Then each of them got to share their reports with the class. The kids loved learning about their friends' states!

Sick, bleh! So here's PART of my Oklahoma mini unit!

I have been a little MIA lately. I am home sick from school for the third day in a row. I was also sick over the weekend. I went to school Easter Sunday to make some quick, busy work plans for a sub. I just had NOTHING in me!! What started out as what I thought was a horrible muscle spasm turned out to be a kidney infection and slight case of pneumonia! YUCK. As of right now the earliest I can go back is Thursday! This is longest I have ever been away from a class at one time!

 My WONDERFUL friends Amy and Jeanne have been soooo great and have been getting everything ready for my sub and my kiddos each day. I seriously have the best team EVER and I am so greatful for them!

Before I got sick, we spent time learning all about Oklahoma-it's history, landforms, symbols, the Land Run...  We did research in the computer lab on http://www.netstate.com/ to find out some of the odd and not so well known facts and symbols. The kids were pretty into this, even though the site doesn't look all that kid friendly :) A couple of the books we read during the week included:

Every year our 4th grade students re-enact the Land Run on April 22! So before my kids went and watched it at high noon, I wanted them to have some background about it! We read the book above and discussed the Land Run and what we would need to bring with us and why. We also talked about whether or not we would be Sooners and cheat and go before noon to claim our land! Then we wrote about it and made cute little wagons. Just cut off the bottom of a paper sack, cut a piece of white paper in half hotdog style, and make a pattern for 4 wheels and  a handle! (My kids also filled their wagon with things they would bring!)

My sub is supposed to have my kids make cute little flip flap window booklet things (I don't even know what to call 'em!) to show some of the symbols that represent Oklahoma. I will try and get that posted. I was also VERY excited to be able to do some state research projects using all of the "Facts and Symbols" books, hopefully I can get to it!!! If I get to go back Friday that is what I plan on doing, so I will try to post that as well :)

Hoping these antibiotics are working!

Story Elements Flip-Flap Book

We read from our basal this week, and our story was:

My kiddos enjoyed this story because many of them could relate to Sam, who has a new puppy that always gets in trouble! We talked a lot about helping others learn the rules (great review for school rules too, especially at this point in the year!)

For reading comprehension we focused on problem and solution. We read several stories and the kids did a great job at identifying the problem and how it was solved in each story.

I had them make these cute flip-flap books as an assessment (rather than using the problem/solution workbook pages that came with our reading series). I thought they did a fabulous job!

 
 
 

AWESOME math website!

So, I found this website and I am OB-SESSED. I soooo wish I had a Smart Board in my classroom! We will definitely be visiting this site in the computer lab and using the Smart Board in there!

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

They also have other subjects, but I am just LOVING the math! Enjoy!