Friday, October 17, 2008

The Think Tank- Explorers

We have finished and shared our second think tank about explorers. I was very pleased to see that almost the whole class participated in this one and at least attempted to do some of the activities.


Nathan, Josie, Mikayla, and Jack L did a great job with this activity. Mikayla named her island "Love Island" and Josie named hers " Yummy Fruit Island."

Trey did a fabulous job with this activity. He told us that Squanto taught Pilgrims how to push eels out of the water with their bare feet.


Kinsey came up with 10 great questions to ask a famous explorer. Some of her questions were: Is it fun to be an explorer? Have you ever met anyone that had been stranded on an island?


None of the students selected this activity. Encourage them to try this one at home!

These students all created a secret code that needed to be decoded.

All of the students in this group solved the jumbled up words on the think tank board.
All of these students participated in decoding the secret message that I had written.

Campfire Songs 1

This week we started our second theme in reading. The theme is centered around nature. This week we read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night. It is about Henry and his family going camping. One of the activities that we did with this story was to create a campfire song that is sung to the tune of a familiar song. As you can see in the background of many of the videos- we brainstormed a list of song choices on the board.
I had to break this up into two different sections to be able to get all the videos to fit. Every child in the class participated and is on here!
Above each video I have written what song tune they are singing to, just in case you can't figure it out!!


These two videos are both sung to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama. They are working on this song in music class.

Campfire Songs 2

The first video is sung to the tune of Hickory Dickory Dock. The second one in this video is Happy Birthday.





This video is sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.



This video is sung to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus.



This song is sung to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama. They all knew the words to this song because they are working on it with Mr. Morris in music class.



Thursday, October 9, 2008

"Matter in a Bag"

Today we were able to see the state of matter change from a liquid into a solid. We did this by making ice cream. First, the children measured the milk, vanilla, and sugar into their baggie. Then, they put their baggie into a bigger bag filled with ice and rock salt.Next, it was shake, shake, shake senora! Last, we get to eat!

Below all the pictures are a few examples of the activity we did when we got back into the classroom.
I had the children do a RAFT. R- role, A-audience, F-format, and T- topic. They pretended they were milk and wrote a letter to a cow explaining what had happened to them during our activity. They were adorable.












Dear cow,
When I was poured into a bag it was this afternoon. I was surprised! Someone turned me into ice cream! First sugar got poured in me. Then vanilla got poured in me. The schoolyard looked alot bigger than anyplace that I have been! You know why that happened to me because some kid wanted ice cream! Then I had to go in ia bag with ice! I froze because I was a solid. Then I got shook so hard that I turned into ice cream. Then I got eaten!! Then I was gone.
From,
Milk (Jack L.)
Dear Cow,
Today at school the children rudely changed me from a liquid to a solid. I made a lot of new friends. For example: rock salt, vanilla extract, ice, and sugar. I had one foe. His name was "plastic baggie." He was so mean! He kept me from seeing my friends ice and rock salt. It was long and bad!
Sincerely,
Milk (Eli)
Dear Cow,
Today we were turned into a solid: ice cream. So you know I am in someone's stomach. I was shaken up in an ice cold bagny someone. I heard people calling him Jack. Now I am in hi.. owwwww a piece of sandwich justs hit me. I am in his stomach. Well we were shaken for a long time. I can even see his guts. We were outside for a long time.
Love,
Milk (Jack B.)
Dear Miss Calf,
Today I was shookin up. I went to the bus circle and a second grader put me in a thing! I overheard I was going to be ice cream. It was almost the end of the day so it was hot. I got blub guggle phsh cough, that was vanilla, ph cough cough that was my friend sugar. Then I came to a halt. Then ice!in another thing hummmm ice cream...A solid! I never knew I could be a solid! I guess it took an hour or so. I'm.....turning.....into....a...solid! AHHHHHH
Your friend,
Milk (Josie)

Draw Your Teacher

We did a great activity yesterday in class. The kids were able to draw a portrait of me, but the only catch was, they had to use their non-writing hand. The whole 25 minute activity was done with their left hand. We had a discussion on how their pictures would look different than their normal drawings. We also talked about how some people are ambidextrous.
All in all, they had a great time with it. The pencil sketch and coloring with crayons is all done with their non-writing hands.
Come check them out, they are displayed right outside our classroom!

I could only hope to be as beautiful as these portraits!








Simile Poems

Since we spent a few days working on similes and last week our reading lessons were focused around poetry, we decided to write a simile poem. We were able to pick any topic we wanted. We wrote the poems in class and then took them up to the computer lab and Mrs. Hill helped us type them up! Please keep in mind they typed them by themselves! In the lab they added all kind of cool colors, borders, and fonts. Unfortunately on the blog they do not carry over! Even so, they are adorable!
Here they are:

Butterfly
By:Mikayla
It was as yellow as a daisy.
It was as quiet as a mouse.
It is as soft as a kitten.
It tastes like a leaf.
It smells like a cupcake.

Dragons
By: Eli
It was as scaly as a fishes hide.
It was as sharp as a sword.
It was tasting blood like a wet ruby.
It was musty like dry blood.
It was as roaring as lightning.

Fight Plane
By: Jake
It looks like a plane with guns.
It sounds like a loud wind.
It feels like medal
It Taste like fire.
It smells like a grill on fire.

Grandmas Cookies
By: Casey
It smells like its fresh from the oven.
It’s as soft as a feather.
It looks as brown as chocolate syrup.
Its sounds as hot as hot chocolate.
It tastes as good as Hersheys.

Lego Ship
By:Cameron
It looks as gold as my covers
It sounds as real as a car
It feels as bumpy as a jet
It tastes as bad as rocks
It smells like some dirt.

Legos
By:Thai
They look like a bunch of rainbows in the sky.
CLLIIINNG uh-oh they broke and it sounded as loud as a T-Rex roaring
It feels as hard as a rock.
It tastes as weird as dirt, eeww!
It smells as unusual as paper.

My bionicles
ByJack B.
The mask of life is as bright as a flash of light!
It sounds like thunder.
It feels like fire!
It tastes like rurbber.
It smells very weird.

My Cat
By:Sammie
It looks like a Halloween cat roaming outdoors
Sometimes it’s as quiet as a mouse
It feels as soft as a pillow
It doesn’t taste good
Sometimes it tracks smells around the house
If you ever see my cat outside please return it!

My cookie
By:Nathan
It is as brown as a chocolate cake.
It is as silent as the wind.
It feels like a gooey circle.
It tastes like a tasty chocolate cake.
It smells like delishous chocolate ice cream.

My dog benny
By :Jack L.
It looks as small as a apple.
It sounds as loud as someone screaming.
It feels as soft as a cloud.
It taste like rotten fish.
It smells like an air wick.

My hamster Jo-jo
By:Josephine
He looks as black as black berries and as brown as almonds.
He sounds as quiet as the night sky.
He is softer then a barn owl!
He is as squishy and crunchy as a cokroch with a gummie.
He stinks like a dump but he is perfect to me!

My House
By Aubrey
My house looks as yellow as a lemon.
It sounds like a broken stick and
a dropped brick.
It feels as smooth as a lime.
It smells like garbage.

My Kitten
By:Alex
One day I was petting my Kitten when he purrs it is like music to my ears. He looks like an angel. He’s fur is as a pillow. He tasted like a kitten to He smells like cat food.

My lego casle
By: Ian
It looked as cool as a firework.
It souned as quiet as a rock
It felt as bumpy as a tree.
It tastes as duscting as a dog.
It smelled as perity as a bottle of perfume.

My Puppy Izzy
By:Kinsey
She looks as cute as me!
She sounds as if the stars twinkle
Left, as if they twinkle right.
She feels as soft as clouds.
She tastes like a iky dog say,
Like a wet bone.
She smells like I put the
Perfume I like on her.

Steak
By: Michael
It looks like a bone with bones.
When it comes out of the pan it sounds like a rock star band.
It feels as soft as a sausage.
It tastes like pork chop burning hot!
It smells like a pie coming out of my oven.

The beach
By:Ryan
It looks like a place with sand as yellow as the sun
It sounds like waves crashing down
It feels like a wet as the ocean
It tastes like it’s a lot of wet
It smells like air

The night time sky
By:Trey
The stars look like glitering gold.
The sky sounds like a crickit chorping
The sky is as cold as ice.
The stars tastes like flaming hot cheetos.
The night sky smells like the pool

The nintendo
by: hailey
It looks as pink
as
Strawberry ice cream. It
Sounds like A loud
Beep. It feels hard
As wood. It tastes like
Rocks on the street. It
Smells like clear air
From outside.

THE ROAD
BY: LUKE
It looks like a black night.
It sounds like rocks banging together.
It smells like dry clay.
The road taste like rocks.
Its as hot as a star.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Number Drawings

Here is another one of our creative thinking assignments. It was an oral activity just like "Finger People." This time it was word play with numbers. It is so interesting to see how the kids all interpret the words differently.The kids did a great job with it! This is currently posted on the "Anker's Awesome Assignments" board outside our classroom. Come check it out!


This drawing was done by Josie.

This drawing was done by Sammie.
This drawing was done by Luke.







First field trip to the MOSH

Recently we went to the MOSH (Museum of Science and History.) The students had a great time! We saw a show called "What's the Matter?" that went along very well with our current science curriculum.
Here are some pictures of the show we saw, the kids exploring the upstairs portion of the MOSH, and the students comments about our field trip.










My favorite part of the MOSH field trip is the room that has the energy part and bubble part because it was very fun!
- Alex
My favorite part about the MOSH is the science show where he made the thunder storm with the big thunder and clouds.
-Kinsey
I liked the dinosar exhibit because it was really cool when it went roar!
-Ian
My favorite part was when the awesome scientist made the floor turn into clouds.
- Nathan
My favorite part at the MOSH was when I went upstairs because there was cool machines.
- Jack L.
My favorite part was when we saw the allosaurs bones.
-Ryan
My favorite part of the MOSH was the second floor.
- Jake
My favorite part of the MOSH was the matter show. They showed alot of things that I didn't know before!
-Mikayla
My favorite part of MOSH was when we got to go upstairs, it had a lot of really cool contraptions.
-Cameron
My favorite part about MOSH was when he mixed a hot liquid with a cold liquid. It made a big thunder storm!
-Luke
My favorite part was the golf ball that was shot into a net!
-Thai
My favorite part was when we watched the science show and when the golf ball went all the way into the other net.
-Trey
My favorite part was when we went into the big room that had the hot air balloon. I pumped it up and watched it take off.
-Jack B.
MOSH was so much fun wow! I didnt think it would be that fun. My favorite part was when we got to go upstairs! Also my favorite activity was where you had to crank a wheel and when it got to the end of the first dot you press the red button and the ring on the string goes really high!
-Sammie
My favorite part was the game section because it had cool and fun stuff.
-Michael
My favorite part about the MOSH was when we went upstairs. It was really cool!
-Hailey