Week 32- ASPIRE Testing

This week we started and completed most of our ASPIRE testing. We only have 1 test left to take next week. I saw this great idea about writing positive messages for the students on the sidewalk so I bought some sidewalk chalk and recruited a little help.


We wrote positive notes for the students on the bus circle sidewalk, car rider sidewalk, and front entrance sidewalk.

We started each testing day with a piece of chewing gum and a little yoga. Here is a peek at Darby leading us in yoga this week. She went with a little more ambitious poses than I do. 

Our wonderful parents sent snacks in for each testing day. We had these once we successfully completed a testing day. I sent home a schedule of days/snacks. We had some great treats this week!

We wrapped up Friday with a half day and #TLIM Leadership Club day. I lead dance club and we had a great time dancing the whole time. Then the teachers brought lunch for us to have a get together and have a Mexican Fiesta. Yum!

 My principal, Dr. Davis, and my student teacher, Ms. Jordan were twins this week and they stopped me to take their picture. This is our last week with Ms. Jordan and we are really going to miss her when she leaves us. We do wish her all the best and I know she will be a fantastic teacher and can't wait for her to get her own classroom and share her success stories! She's willing to try all my crazy ideas!

STUDENTS: Which test do you think was the easiest? Why?

Week 33- Teacher Appreciation, Lenses, & Branches of Government

As you can see, I was completely spoiled this week during teacher appreciation week! My students and their parents sent goodies and love in all week. 

I'm sure you can also tell I love Hello Kitty!

Since Earth Day was this week I had my science classes write about how they take care of the Earth. They also completed report cards for our school and our classroom about how we do things to conserve and reuse. 

Our school has a school wide recycling program so we are doing a great job in that area!

We were also learning about concave and convex lenses. I created a visual a few years ago to help my students remember them. Here are the notes they added to their science notebooks. 

I also had my students that wear glasses hold them up in front of the projector for the Smartboard. It allowed them to see if their lenses were concave or convex. You could also tell how strong the prescription is by the size of the rings given off by the glasses.

My homeroom has been working on presentations to teach the class about branches of government. This group acted out a trial and the guilty were lead away in handcuffs.

Testing is next week and we are ready! Are you familiar with these erasers? These are the all time BEST erasers for testing! I had bought the large erasers in the past but my students would forget to use them and use the eraser on top of the pencil instead. So we discovered these Hi-Polymer Eraser Caps for the pencil! I have enough for every student in my class to put on their pencil Monday!

STUDENTS: How does using brain dumps/visuals help you remember information in math and science?