Week 20- 100th Day

We had 4H this week and Kaleigh won first place for the picture frame she made with her dad. Great job Kaleigh!



We have been studying solids, liquids, and gases. This week we mixed together 2 clear liquids, alcohol and sodium silicate. Check out what happened!



The kids passed it around and took turns bouncing the ball. When we finished we put it in a sandwich bag and left it for a while.



When we went back to it the ball was gone. It was flat!



This week was also the 100th day of school. Everyone dressed up like they were 100 years old.



Check out some of the teachers at school!







We are a Leader in Me school so we used 100 sticky notes and wrote 100 ways to be a leader. The kids did a great job listing ways to be a leader. However, something is still missing from the bulletin board I did. I'm thinking a picture or something should go in the top right corner. Any ideas?



Mrs. Reasner shared this idea with me so I did it with my students too. We cut out the number 100 and the kids had to "hide" it in their pictures.







I also had the students draw a picture of what they thought they'd look like when they were 100 years old. I also had them write a bucket list of things they want to do before they are 100.



We then talked about the bucket list fits in our habits. The kids came up with great ideas! These are ways we "sharpen the saw" to stay balanced.



STUDENTS: Share a few things from your bucket list.

Week 20- Solid, Liquid, and Gas

This week we started our chemistry unit! It is my favorite science unit. We started by learning about solids, liquids, and gases.



The kids put each in a bag/cup and spent some time experimenting to learn about their properties.





We have also been singing about solids, liquids, and gases. I love using music to teach and this one was perfect for our lesson this week.



We also added and subtracted fractions with unlike denominators. Do you know about the butterfly method?

























STUDENTS: We have been reading The Watson's Go to Birmingham, which is one of my favorite books. Tell me what you favorite part of the book is so far.

Week 19- Think Win-Win

This week we worked on fractions. The kids played a go fish game of fractions. Before playing, they had to reduce the fractions so they would know what to ask for when playing. We didn't make it past reducing the fractions but next week we'll try again.






Our school is also in the first year of becoming a Leader in Me school. Each teacher submitted their favorite quote along with a photo. The Lighthouse team created this display in the hallway outside the library. I love looking at the different quotes and the kids love it as well! I noticed several of them stopping to read the quote and look at the pictures this week.



We talked about habit 4: Think Win-Win. So today we did a little activity to practice! I grouped the students and they had to stand side by side with their feet touching. Then they had to come up with a way to move around the desks without letting their feet come apart. Most groups came up with a plan and they were able to complete the task. A few had to start over but everyone was thinking win-win.



STUDENTS: This week I asked you to pick one habit to focus on and come up with a plan of action. Share the habit you are working on and what you plan to do. When you list the habit make sure to list the habit number and explain what that habit means.

I am working on Think Win-Win. Since this habit talks about your emotional bank account I'm leaving positive post it notes on student work in the hallway throughout the building. One younger student came up to me this week and she was so excited that I had left a "good job" note on her work in the hallway. She was smiling from ear to ear! I know I was able to make a deposit into her emotional bank account!

Week 18- Ew, Gross!

I guess the week before Christmas break was our "gross out" week. I didn't plan it that way but that's the way it worked out. Several weeks ago we started an experiment with our school nurse. She took the kids around the school and they took swabs of the toilet and water fountain.



After about 10 days this is what we have.



The kids made slides and we examined it under the microscope.



I think I have some kids who won't be drinking from the water fountains now.





We took a break from "gross" and made our reindeer job applications. I took pictures of the kids and they cut them out and added antlers and noses. These turned out really cute!



To wrap up the week, we dissected sheep hearts. We had just finished our unit on the circulatory system. This was the perfect ending.



The kids were able to see the chambers inside a real heart.



STUDENTS: What do you think was worse, the sheep hearts or the toilet/fountain slides? Why?

Week 17- School Play & Factors

This week on the reading test my students had to write about someone who inspires them. Riley made my day when she wrote about me.



We have been learning about factors in math so here are a few of the pages we made in our interactive notebooks for math. On this page we listed our vocabulary on different colored sticky notes. You can see the way we do factors. We call them factor rainbows. It helps the kids know when to stop listing factors. When you get to the other side of the rainbow you're finished.



Mrs. James, our math coach, came in Thursday and made a flipbook with the kids too. They also solved some fun math puzzles. She left me a 10,000 chart. I've never seen a chart so big! I plan to put it up next week and start using it when we return from Christmas break.



Today the drama club performed their play, Hansel and Gretal. Ryan and Colette were the lead actors.







I had several students in the school drama club and I'm so proud of each and every one of them. Their performance was amazing!



STUDENTS: It is almost time for Christmas break. Tell us about a Christmas tradition your family has.

Week 16- Unfair Taxes & Handwashing

Since this week was Hand Washing Week we did a little experiment. I gave each kid some germs (special powder) to rub into their hands. Then we looked at our hands under a black light. Then I had different kids "wash" their hands different ways: water only, soap and water, and hand sanitizer. Here are the results.

Washed with soap and water


Washed with hand sanitizer

Washed with water only


The kids were a bit grossed out when we talked about how hand sanitizer kills the germs but leaves them on your hands. Maybe we'll have some good hand washing taking place now.

We are also learning about events leading up to the Revolutionary War. I randomly picked a king (in this case we used a queen) and members of Parliament. We also had a tax collector (pictured in the back).


Each of the colonists earned skittles. Then the king and Parliament declared taxes on certain items to help pay for the French and Indian War.



After this the kids could understand why the colonists felt like this was so unfair. Here you can see a student trying to figure out how he can pay the tax on pencils when he has more pencils than skittles.



Our class has also been learning about the digestive system. I grossed a lot of them out this week with the video below. It shows the steps in the digestive system. Their reaction was priceless!



STUDENTS: This week we helped our nurse start an experiment at school. Tell our readers about the experiment and what you did. I would also like you to make a prediction about what you think will happen with our experiment and why you think that. Don't forget to "kill" because!

Week 15- Measurement & Artists

This week we started learning about idioms. We have a list we are learning the meaning of. So this week I had two students wear shirts to go along with our idioms. Ananda wore her "Let's Go Bananas" shirt because we are learning that go bananas means to go crazy.



Brooks pointed out that his shirt shows how the Angry Birds get hot under the collar.



We learned how to convert customary measurement this week too. Check out our brain dumps. What is a brain dump? It is a visual representation of the concept we are learning. The kids learn these and write them down from memory to be able to convert measurement.

Inches to Miles


Ounces to Tons


Fluid Ounces to Gallons- Way to go Ryan L. for coming up with this one! I have always used the big G brain dump and it was a different format to convert measurement. Ryan came up with this brain dump so it is the same as the others we were learning. It really helped the students to see how to convert capacity.



Want to see how we used our brain dumps to convert measurement? Check out my ShowMe video!



Of course we had our silly moments! This week we had an assembly and the students who sold tumblers were able to pick our prizes. I sold some tumblers too so I was able to pick a few prizes myself. Check out our mustaches!



Then when playing idioms charades, Brady hid under the desk to act out "in the doghouse".



Our reading story this week was about Leonardo da Vinci so we studied several different artists. Today the kids used the style of their favorite artist to create their own self portraits! Check out a few of them. They really did a great job!







STUDENTS: Tell us what you learned about your favorite artist this week.