What we've been up to in Room 232

I'm SO happy that tomorrow is Friday!!!! It has been quite the long and crazy week for me!! Without going into too much info. I left right after the kids on Monday because I was having some serious pain!! It was so bad that my principal came into my room to ask me something and I was teaching math and she noticed how much pain I was in and sent me to the nurse to get checked out! So I left school and went to a walk in clinic and they think I had a cyst on my ovary that erupted!! I was out of work on Tuesday to go to the doctors, so thank goodness I work with a wonderful team and they just split my class up so I didn't have to mess with sub plans. Wednesday I had to leave early to make it to another doctor appointment. So today when I greeted my kiddos they all asked me if I was staying all day today and when I told them yes they were super excited! They love routine and this was anything but routine for them!

This week we have been working on contractions and I found this idea on Pinterest (where else?) and decided this was a good way for the kids to practice some contractions. So we made contraction kites. I think they turned out pretty cute, and the sign I put above it reads: Flying high learning about contractions. They were quick and easy, and the kids loved them! So now in the hallway their are 16 kites with 16 different contractions on them!

Then in Science we are learning about life cycles. So today was the life cycle of the frog. Our reading series, Treasures, has some big colorful oral vocabulary stories that we are suppose to use each week and one of the stories is the life cycle of the frog with some wonderful pictures. So I read that and the kids cut and labeled the frog's life cycle. I had full intentions on the kids writing a little bit about each phase, but we ran out of time so I was happy with just labels today. They didn't come out as nice as I wanted them too, but it still got the message across, and that's what counts right?

I don't know why this one is upside down, but you still get the idea!

So that's what we we've been up to! It was a very busy and productive day!

Science Workshop

A few weeks ago I had signed up for a professional development class for Science called, Picture Perfect Science, and I'm so glad that I went!! It was such a great class and I walked away with the book that contains 15 lessons, and then 3 trade books and materials to teach 2 of the lessons! You should of heard the class of about 18 woman, every time the presenter told us that we were getting that book too we all oohed and aahhed over it!! If you didn't know any better it was like an episode of Oprah's favorite things show that she held around Christmas time, except this was the teacher version!

Ok, back to what the class: the book is all about teaching Science using trade books and it gives the book suggestions (which has questions ready to be asked for both reading and science topics) to use along with experiments that the kids can do. What I liked about it was the fact that most lessons used 2 books, one fiction story, and then a supporting non-fiction book to help with the concept. Some of the lessons even have short essays that the kids can pull the information out of. The book also gives you reading strategies to use with the book so you will be hitting reading and science at the same time. Which is perfect for the Common Core!!

Here's the book that gives the lessons:

We got this book to do a lesson about UV Rays, the experiment with this lesson was a lot of fun! The kids will get to make bracelets with UV beads that when we take them outside they will go from white to pretty colors. Then they have to figure out what made them change colors. It also talks about sun safety and with living in Florida the kids really need to know about those UV rays with summer right around the corner! I can't wait to do this lesson with the kids.

Then these next two books are about trees and what comes from trees how they are important to our everyday lives. The 1st book I have never read and I loved the story! Just a warning it had a couple people with tears in their eyes.

If you've used this book I would love to know what you think, and any of the lessons that you have done!