Science Experiment- First Week of School!

          We learned this week how to conduct science experiments safely and with our group members.  We posed a question with a bigger experiment and then investigated and created wonderings using a smaller scale experiment.  Then we tested our ideas on the bigger scale.  It was so much fun and I encourage you to try it at home if you haven't seen this experiment before!  The big experiment we used a cup of water, a pizza pan, a toilet paper holder, a broom and a raw egg.  The class had to figure out how to cut the egg into the glass, using only the broom, without breaking the egg.  We introduced the term "inertia" and broke a few eggs!

Scratch-off Reward Cards

          Thanks to a fellow colleague, we are using these scratch off reward cards this year in our class!  Students get to draw one out when they are being rewarded for something and then they get to scratch off the card to see what their reward will be!  (Teachers write in what they want the reward to be and then you put the sticky cover over it to cover it up.)  These are so awesome and they came from Oriental Trading!  The kids love them!

Me Bags

          On the first day of school, I had a treat for every student in a popcorn bag on their desk, waiting for them as they come into our room.  That night, students were to take the bags home with them and bring it back and put in it, three to four items that would describe them.  It was amazing how creative students were with the items they brought back!  I love learning all about their interests and what they love to do when they are not at school!

What makes a good teacher?

          We talked last week about student expectations and teacher expectations.  I asked the students to come up with some things that makes a good teacher and then their groups shared them with the class.  We created a mind map to keep up with all their ideas and it is going to hang in our room as a reminder to me of what makes a good teacher from my students' perspective!

Write Chat

          In social studies this week, we began talking about natural resources and how our resources vary depending on the physical characteristics of the area we live.  We have begun to look at maps that show characteristics of the United States and will begin research this week on the regions of the U.S.  Students completed a write chat on the topic of "Where do pencils come from"?  A write chat is where students must chat on a topic, only by writing.  It is tougher than you think, but it's really cool to be able to see their conversations unfold!

Place Value Musical Chairs- Sort of...

          We have been learning about place value this week to the millions place.  We played a game yesterday to discuss how to find the value of digits in different places up to millions.  We had a "Value Queen" and number people holding our digits.  We played our school song for the Value Queen to move to and wherever she stopped, our audience members had to identify the value of that digit. 

Inferencing with Commercials and Movie Clips

This morning we continued our discussion on inferencing using our schema (personal experiences) and what we learn from the text or in this case, the video clips.  We used the following clips to make inferences about what was going to happen next.  They were pretty funny!


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-blu2QYxP70
We paused this one while Dr. Dru is looking at the phone to make an inference on what he was going to do...  Will he call her?


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HY4L1ihRkaY&feature=plpp
We made an inference on what was going to happen after the door closed... too funny!