Christmas Mission: 12 Days of Giving- SUCCESS

Today we wrapped up our 12 Days of Giving: Christmas Mission and all I have to say is WOW!  Today, we started a new Christmas tradition by going to the Nursing Home to sing Christmas carols and deliver the gifts we collected on two of our days of giving (socks and lotion.)  We collected 95 pairs of new socks and 25 bottles of lotion to give to the nursing home residents.  Watching our kids hand the elderly the gifts and sing carols as we walked through the halls made me get choked up!  That is what Christmas is truly all about!

We also collected donations for the Salvation Army and the president of our local Salvation Army came to speak to our students and we get to present our donation of $87.34!  The Family Resource provided milk and cookies for our students after Mr. Bud shared with our students about how the Salvation Army organization helps people in need.  He also did a neat presentation and reminded students not to let their lives get so "stuffed" at Christmas that we forget what it is all about to begin with.  Our hats and gloves that were donated will be delivered over Christmas break to a homeless shelter in Memphis, Tennessee by a local lady who is going to serve meals on Christmas Day.  The shoes and coats will be taken to FRYSC to give out to our kids at school, as needed.

Day One: Non-perishable food items 118 items

Day Two: Salvation Army Donation $87.34

Day Three: Socks 95 pairs

Day Four: New/Used Coats 33

Day Five: Toys 92

Day Six: New/Used Shoes 27

Day Seven: School Supplies (We received lots of items!)

Day Eight: Bottles of Lotion 25

Day Nine: Winter Hats 25

Day Ten: Gloves 39 pair

Day Eleven: Non-perishable food items (again)

Day Twelve: Salvation Army Donations (again)

Thank you for giving- it is better to give than receive!

Christmas Traditions

 STUDIO 214 CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST

4 Dozen Doughnuts- $20

2 Gallons of Juice- $8

24 Candy Canes- $2

21 Dubble Bubble Coin Banks- $21

48 Hershey Kisses- $3

Christmas napkins and plates- $10

14 Candles (Battery Powered)- ???

22 Over-sized Snowflakes

5 Christmas Tree Centerpieces

 The look on their faces when they came into our room this morning: PRICELESS! 

(This is definitely one of my most favorite memories from each year at Christmas!)

Trial 4 Presentations

This week we conducted a weathering and erosion experiment with 3 trials that were all the same for the entire class.  The fourth trial, students got to design their own test and record the results and today they presented their results, along with their "thick" questions and any new wonderings.  It was amazing the ideas they presented, all backed by data!

While You Were Away...

I had to be out a couple of days last week for meetings and created a silly video to send my kids using the "Helium Booth" free app.  We all need to laugh sometimes!

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas!"

We made this video to thank Ms. Patsy and Ms. Linda for all their hard work around CCES to make it look so festive and beautiful!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's not what you think!  We are making it "snow" in Studio 214 by making predictions and posting our predictions by creating a class bar graph with their answers.  What I love so much about this, is students are not worried about getting the wrong answer because they pick up someone else's answer off the floor to post in the window.  This gives me great information as a whole group because I can see what the class is thinking before we begin a lesson.

Card Sort- Weathering, Erosion, Deposition

This week we are focusing on how the Earth's surface changes with weathering, erosion, and deposition.  Students had to sort cards into three different groups together and discuss why it would fall into that category.

Science at Home!

This excites me so much when fourth grade students go home and conduct their own experiments just for fun!  Gabby brought this in from an experiment she conducted at home to see what would happen when she put a raw egg in vinegar!  It looked really cool!

Science Annotations

Students are learning how to make annotations as they read so they can better understand what they read, make connections, and create "thick questions" as scientists create questions to solve problems and figure things out.  Here is a sample of their annotations!

Jr. Achievement

We started Jr. Achievement classes today with Mrs. Amisha!  We are so thankful for our local banks for supporting this program in our schools.

RTI Punch Cards

We are working really hard during RTI and just as an incentive to work our very hardest, we are using punch cards!  Each time a student levels up on Lexia or finishes a practice or test assignment with Accelerated Math, students get a punch on their card.  When they fill their card up, they get to pick something out of our treasure chest, which was recently restocked with some AWESOME stuff!

Christmas Mission: 12 Days of Giving

Instead of exchanging gifts with students and teachers, we decided to be LEADERS and help those in need in our community!  This Wednesday, starts our Christmas Mission: 12 Days of Giving.  Help us, help others- it's the greatest gift of all!

O Christmas Tree

We have decorated for Christmas and our tree matches our room theme!  I love how it turned out and was excited to hear our kids response!

Take a "Science Second"

I have been learning more about how the brain works by using the book "Brain Rules" by John Medina, and wanted to incorporate some of that information into our science class.  I wanted a way to accomplish three goals- remembering science vocabulary in a fun way, spiraling vocabulary throughout the year, and being able to take spontaneous brain breaks throughout our class but not lose our focus on what we are working on.  So I made up the name "SCIENCE SECOND" and we started them today by putting hand motions with our science vocabulary words that would be associated with the meaning.  Here are three of the words we did today focusing on the types of rocks and the rock cycle- Metamorphic, Igneous, and Sedimentary.  It was led by our Paparazzi team in this class (Team Atlantis).

Plickers- Formative Assessment Tool

We have been using Plickers, a free resource that is like clickers, but much easier to use and it uses a QR code!  Students are assigned a card and they use one card to choose their answer.  I use my i-pad or phone to scan the room to get immediate feedback and use that information to check formatively whether students are understanding our target for the day or if we need to go over any topics again.  Everyone's code looks different and the letters are so small that no one can see what their neighbor is answering!  It is such a cool resource and so easy to set up and use!  It shows me automatically how the class responds and individual student responses as well.

Jigsaws and Flipcharts

We did a jigsaw task yesterday where students became an expert on one of the rock types of the rock cycle.  They then explained and taught the rest of the class about their rock and students recorded important information on their flip chart from the student experts' presentations!