The Last Day of School

The last day of school was filled with excitement! We started off the day watching a Teacher vs. 6th Grade volleyball game and before we knew it, it was time for our make-your-own-sundae party.

Students enjoyed loading up their bowls with yummy toppings.

Thank you to everyone who sent in toppings for this delicious end to our day! 

Once everyone was finished eating, students signed yearbooks.

I passed out memory books for anyone who didn't have a yearbook so everyone had something to collect signatures.

Then it was time to line the hallway to "clap out" the 6th grade students. There were lots of tears during this bittersweet occasion.

Possibly the most exciting part of the day came when a student revealed that he had heard some of our students mentioned on TV while watching PBS in regards to one of the writing contests we entered this year. We did a little googling and sure enough, we had two third place winners and a first place winner! Congrats to these students and I hope to do a blog post when I get more information! 

The 2014-2015 school year was an incredible one for me, and I will never forget it. Each student played a special role and brought something important to the class. This was a class of eager learners, high achievers and students who were kind, generous, funny and sweet. Through this blog, you now have a permanent record of the amazing 2014-2015 school year. The blog will be archived so you and/or your child can look back at what we did in 1st or 2nd grade.

Oh What Fun!

Yesterday we embarked on our annual gingerbread house decorating party! Okay, they were actually graham cracker houses but it was still lots of fun! Thanks again to everyone who sent in supplies and joined our festive celebration. Thanks also for my wonderful and generous gifts! I loved all of them! Watch the video below for a little glimpse into the festivities. 

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

We wrapped up our unit about Cinco de Mayo with a fun fiesta on the 5th of May!

We learned about the significance of Ojo de Dios and each student got to create one. 

Later we read a short story about pinatas, and then everyone got to create their own paper bag pinata. They were stuffed with candy and sent home to be smashed.

Our final activity of the day was a delicious snack of chips and salsa, which every student really enjoyed! 

Celebrating Pi Day

 We celebrated Pi Day by creating bracelets with beads representing each digit of pi (and a small, black bead to represent the decimal point.) 

We worked with our 5th and 6th grade buddy class during this project because they are truly experts on pi and were able to teach us a lot! We had a class discussion about this magical number and talked about that it is a transcendental number and also an irrational number. 

After creating a Pi Bracelet, pairs of buddies worked together using the Tellegami app to create a video about pi. 

Last but certainly not least, we measured the circumference of several pies, sang happy birthday to pi and enjoyed a delicious slice of pie! 

We Are 100 Days Smarter!

 Where is this school year going? It is hard to believe we have already reached the 100th day of school, but we did! It was a day worthy of celebrating!

 One of our most fun activities was each student counted out 100 mini marshmallows and created geometric shapes. Students got very creative and many attempted to build a dodecahedron. 

We also counted out 100 Froot Loops and made a necklace! The entire classroom smelled delicious during this activity! It was very interesting to see the different patterns and designs on each necklace.

Another hands on project we did was taking the digits one, zero and zero and turning them into something else. Students got very creative and we had ladybugs, owls, airplanes, black holes and lots of other unique ideas!

Throughout the day we also wrote hundreds of words, solved 100 math problems, created math problems with the answer 100 and illustrated what we might look like when we are 100 years old. Happy 100th Day of School!

Harvest Festival

Last week the class had a great time at the school Harvest Festival. Special thanks to all the parents who helped out and/or donated. During the festival students created caramel apples, wrote an acrostic poem, participated in a pumpkin relay race, listened to some stories, created a turkey craft and just generally had a ton of fun! 

Watch this video to see what the Harvest Festival was like.

Celebrating Dot Day With Augmented Reality

My class is always up for a celebration, so last week we celebrated International Dot Day.

Each year on September 15 (or the 16th if the 15th happens to be on a weekend) educators worldwide celebrate Dot Day to encourage creativity and unleash potential. Inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' classic book The Dot, students are encouraged to "make their mark."

In the past my class has celebrated International Dot Day in a more traditional way, by drawing dots. This year, I stumbled upon the colAR App and decided to take our dots into the 21st century!

I simply printed out the Dot Day pages, students decorated the blank dot and with our buddy class, we used the colAr app on iPads to make our festive dots come to life!

This technology is called Augmented Reality and really needs to be experienced to be fully understood. The students enjoyed watching their creations come alive, and I am looking forward to bringing Augmented Reality into the classroom in new and innovative ways.