Be Kind People Project 1st Place Winner!

Congratulations Liam!

Earlier this year the class completed a Social Studies unit about Kindness and at the end of the unit, the entire class entered the Be Kind People Project Creative Expression Contest to demonstrate what he or she had learned. I am thrilled and honored to announce we had a first place winner in the technology category!

Part of Liam's prize included a Skype for the whole class with Akellz from the Be Kind Crew.

Akellz was a ton of fun and lead the class through the Be Kind Pledge. He discussed every word in the pledge, what it meant and why it was important. Then he had the kids partner up and create a kindness handshake.

The kids loved being out of their seats singing, dancing, cheering and clapping! Below is a little snippet from our Skype.

Tie Dye Science

We had a blast tie-dying shirts this week using Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol! 

These are the materials you need for this tie-dye science project. 

First, students isolated a small section of their shirt by putting it over a cup and wrapping a rubber band around it. Then, they meticulously drew a design in the middle of this shirt section using a Sharpie marker.

Next, students drizzled some rubbing alcohol on their design using a straw.

The results were immediate! Students were excited to watch their designs morph right before their eyes.

We continued repeating these steps until students felt their shirts were complete.

We made observations and predictions and collected data as we worked.

Our finished product was a uniquely designed t-shirt! We had a great class discussion regarding the chemistry of why the ink separated, why this project worked with rubbing alcohol and why it would not work with water. 

Bears With Our Bird Buddies

Our final field trip of the school year was a huge hit! We went with our buddy class, Mrs. Bird's 5/6 students, to the Stuffington Bear Factory. 

We started off with an interactive, animal themed Jeopardy game. Both big buddies and little buddies did very well, with many students winning accessories for the bear they would build later in the day. Then, our tour guide brought us around the factory. Since it is an actual, working factory, we were cautioned not to touch anything and "stay behind the red tape" throughout most of the tour. 

We learned about the materials used for the products created at the factory and saw workers stitching by hand. 

Both classes were VERY excited to spy a tub full of Google themed pillows! We asked our tour guide about them and she said they have a contract to create them for another company.

After the tour each student got to pick out a very deflated looking stuffed animal to create. 

First, students stepped on a pedal attached to the stuffing machine to stuff their bear.

Next, they brought their freshly stuffed bear over to the sewing station to be hand stitched closed.

 After the stitching, students headed to the vacuuming station where all the lint, fuzz and extra thread was carefully vacuumed off the bears.

If there STILL seemed to be debris on the bears after the vacuum, this bathtub blasted air and students could "wash" their animals.

Then, students brought their new snuggly friends over to the ribbon station. Everyone chose two different colored ribbons to be added to their bear.

Finally, students looked through lists of potential names for their new toy and filled out a birth certificate.

After this very thorough bear creating experience, we headed back to Fireside and had a delicious pizza, juice and picnic party in the park with our buddies!

It seemed that every student enjoyed this experience and it was a wonderful day for students from both classes. A big thank you to the parent helpers and everyone who sent in picnic foods and supplies for our delicious lunch. 

Mystery Money Eggs

This week we combined a few math lessons to learn about money, calculating sums, calculating differences and data analysis via Google sheets. To kick off this lesson, each student received a Mystery Money Egg, opened it, and added up the contents. 

When they were finished with their calculations, they scanned the enclosed QR Code to see if the total they had calculated matched the amount listed on the QR code. None of the QR Codes matched the totals! The next step was for students to figure out the difference between the total listed on the QR Code and the actual total. 

Then students found a partner with the same color egg and combined their totals. They also worked together to add the totals listed on their two QR Codes and found the difference between their combined money totals and the two QR Codes. 

Next, students returned to their original seats and accessed their pvLearners accounts. They learned to create a Google sheet and created a spreadsheet detailing their egg contents. The next step was to share the digital spreadsheet with their Mystery Money Egg partner and me. Partners added another page to their spreadsheet to record the data from the combined eggs. 

Students enjoyed the "mystery" aspect of this lesson and were able to practice somewhat basic math skills and combine them with higher level data tracking and analytics. The Mystery Money Eggs incorporated The Four C's, as students were required to communicate, collaborate and think critically throughout the lesson. The creativity integration came when creating the spreadsheet, as students had choices of fonts, backgrounds, colors, cell size, etc.  

The rubric was reviewed at the beginning and throughout the lesson, so students had a clear understanding of the purpose and how they would be graded. 

We Rock!

In Science, we have been learning about rocks, along with pebbles, sand and silt. In this investigation, students studied three different types of rocks.

They also rubbed them together and were surprised at the different reactions. Some rocks created a fine powder, some visibly scratched the other rock and some did nothing. The power also looked different on black paper and white paper. 

Learning Multiplication Facts

Since the start of 2015, we have been working fervently to learn and memorize the multiplication facts, zero through ten. 

In class, we realized there were really only twenty-one facts that we need to know, so we created a video about those facts.

Then we made flashcards of those twenty-one facts and quizzed each other because once we know those, we know ALL of them!

Students had a good time creating their own multiplication themed board game. When they were finished, they played the game with their classmates. 

We decided that the nines were one of the more complicated tables to learn, so we learned a few tricks about the nines. Ask your child to show you the finger trick we learned in class. 

Did you know the digits of the product of a nine factor will add up to nine? For example, 9x3=27 and 2+7=9 and 5x9=45 and 4+5=9! This works on the nines tables one through ten. 

We also determined that the sevens table was a difficult one too, so we created "cootie catchers" to practice the sevens. 

Spending time online doing math drills and playing multiplication games has helped cement these facts in our brains, too! We do a good deal of higher level, multi-step math in class and if students don't have a solid grasp of the multiplication tables, they face unnecessary challenges. These facts are information students will need to know for the rest of their academic career (at the minimum) and once they are memorized, it makes the rest of math quite a bit easier. The best way to memorize these facts is to practice, practice, practice! Flashcards, xtramath.org, practice tests and multiplication games are great ways to practice.

On the first day we took the test, not a single student was able to answer 100 questions correctly in three minutes or less. Just a few weeks later, eleven of our twenty-two students have finished the test scoring 100% in three-minutes or less, and are now working on much more advanced math during the daily drill. We will be drilling for another month or so, so keep practicing! 

Student Created Gifts

Students are always excited to give a family member a gift but it can be tricky to find something that is feasible to create in a classroom, everyone can use and doesn't break the bank. This year my class decorated mugs to give as holiday gifts and they came out great!

Every student got a white mug and decorated the mug however they chose using Sharpie markers.

Students could choose any person to receive their mug and any occasion to celebrate. Many students chose Christmas or Hanukkah, but one student chose her mom's birthday and another decided it would be a "just because" gift. 

After the mugs were decorated I brought them home and baked them at 400 degrees for an hour to set the ink.

The finished mugs were lovely and students were so excited to wrap their gifts and present it to the recipient! 

Candy Cane Chemistry

Shortly before Winter Break we did a couple experiments with candy canes. We wondered what would happen if we soaked a candy cane in water. We also decided to test and see what would happen if we soaked a candy cane in vegetable oil. Students formed a hypothesis and then we tested our theories.

This is what the candy canes looked like when we dropped them in the oil and water.

This is what the candy cane looked like after just a few minutes in water! The colors faded very quickly. By the next day when we observed the candy canes again, the candy cane in water had completely disappeared! However, the candy cane in oil did not change even one tiny bit.

We learned that water is often called a universal solvent because many substances dissolve in it. However, no one substance can dissolve every solute. A general rule in chemistry is that “like dissolves like.” This rule means that a solvent will dissolve substances that have similar molecular structures. Sugar dissolves in water but it does not dissolve in oil or other liquids.